Elderly, generous, and impulsive, Miss Mary

Hall is wealthy enough to indulge any of her

eccentric notions for doing good. The most

recent scheme, and possibly the most eccen-

tric of all, is one for solving the housing

shortage and at the same time reviving that

noble though moribund institution, the great

big old-fashioned three-generation family.

She empowers her executive secretary, Me-

linda Drew, to set up a sort of pilot project.

After Miss Mary has purchased a Victorian

mansion for the purpose, Melinda hires eleven

people, mostly strangers to one another, to

live together in peace and amity under one

ornate roof.

Casper and Myrtle Lane, who are to fill

the roles of grandparents, are indeed hus-

band and wife. So are Miles and Elizabeth

Hubbard, who represent the middle genera-

tion, and who bring with them their own

seventeen-year-old twin offspring, Ronald

and Jane. But the aspiring novelist, Victoria

May, who s to play maiden aunt, and testy

Reade Coleman, who ll stand in as bachelor

uncle, aren t related to each other or to any-

one else. Nor are the three Price children--

Robert and Leila and Holly, aged seven and

six and five--who are temporary orphans.

Everyone knows what happens to even

the best-laid plans...