Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is head over heels in love with his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), and is ready to pop the big question. When his attempt to propose is thwarted by a phone call with the news that Pam's younger sister is getting married, Greg realizes that the key to Pam's hand in marriage lies with her formidable father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro).

A trip to New York for her sister's wedding seems just the right occasion for Greg to ask Pam to be his wife. But everything that could possibly go wrong, does.

Upon his arrival at the family's picturesque, Norman Rockwell-like home, Greg is greeted by what appears to be the picture-perfect family: a loving husband and wife with a doting son and two daughters and a beloved cat. But for a guy who usually resorts to dry wit in stressful situations, Greg is suddenly shooting blanks with Jack, a retired horticulturist...and rather imposing figure. No one is good enough for Jack's first-born daughter, and the fact that Greg is a cat-hating male nurse with a vulgar-sounding last name is not helping things at all.

While Greg bends over backwards to try and make a good impression, his weekend begins with lost luggage at the airport and turns into a hilarious series of one disaster after another.