Ethel waits in Heaven for 60 years for a chance to earn her wings, until finally she is sent to earth in the 1980s to help the Preston family.

[3] The Prestons are a typical modern-day American family with modern-day situations: widowed father Richard (Stephen Johnson, then Dick Sargent) is a realtor, though he retired a few months after and began working as a licensing agent for new inventors; older son Duane (David Kaufman) is very class-conscious; teenage daughter Lissy (Kyle Richards) is very opinionated; Jay Jay (Randy Josselyn), the youngest, just wants someone who can fill their late mother's void.

Infiltrating the household as housekeeper and maid, Ethel is unsurprisingly clueless about even the simplest conveniences of modern-day 1980s family life.

He was moved to another position in Heaven a few months after, and the very concerned but comical Lester Luster (Ronnie Schell) took over, followed by her ex-fiancé/con-man Jake (Michael DeLano), with the outrageous Stanley McCloud (Rip Taylor) taking over in the show's final years.

A few months after the show's beginning, a turning point occurred: Ethel's mission on Earth proved successful and she was ordered back to Heaven.