Wanting to start a new life after coming back from the war and getting married, city slicker Bob buys a farmstead with plans primarily to raise chicken to sell the eggs as a business. Buying the farm is something he doesn't tell his equally city slicker bride, Betty, before doing so. In the farm, an eager Bob doesn't see what Betty sees, which is an old, dilapidated property that requires much work to make it livable. While trying to make a go of the farm, Bob and Betty meet their odd assortment of neighbors, including the respectively housework challenged and lazy Ma and Pa Kettle, the oldest of their fifteen children, Tom, a bright and industrious young man, who dreams of going to college; the rhyme-talking Billy Reed, who is willing to sell Betty anything; busybody Birdie Hicks; the relatively silent Geoduck and Corkscrew; elderly Emily and her difficult to see husband Albert; and Harriet Putnam, the elegant owner of the Bella Vista Farm, the largest and most businesslike of the farms in the area. Betty quickly realizes that she is not well suited to rural living. But what Betty is most concerned about regarding her new environment is what seems to be a romantic interest that Harriet shows in Bob