It is the sequel to the 1947 film version of Betty MacDonald's semi-fictional memoir The Egg and I and the first official installment of Universal-International's Ma and Pa Kettle series starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride.

During the council meeting to condemn the property, Alvin, the town's mailman, calls about a telegram declaring Pa Kettle the winner of the contest's grand prize of a new "house-of-the-future".

Mayor Dwiggins is delighted and cancels the meeting in order to deliver the telegram personally to Pa. All of the council members arrive at Ma and Pa's farmhouse but are greeted by the 14 youngest Kettle children who, thinking they are defending their home from condemnation, attack them with slingshots and toy guns.

The Kettles' oldest son Tom, on his way home after graduating from college, meets easterner Kim Parker on the train and shows her his plans to improve a chicken incubator to make it more affordable for farmers.

Kim is a young writer full of theories on the advantages of modern living, but when Tom learns of his family's windfall, he objects to the characterization that his upbringing had been one of "abject" poverty.