Walter Fielding Jr. (Tom Hanks), een advocaat gespecialiseerd in de entertainmentindustrie, en Anna Crowley (Shelley Long), een violiste, zijn uit hun flat in Manhattan gezet. Als reactie hierop besluiten ze om het huis van hun dromen te kopen. Ze komen er vrij snel achter dat dit huis boordevol geldverslindende verschrikkingen zit. Ondanks het feit dat hun huis en hun bankrekening letterlijk in elkaar storten, proberen ze hun relatie in stand te houden. Alexander Godunov als Max "Maestro" Beissart en Maureen Stapleton als Estelle steken de helpende hand uit terwijl alles in elkaar stort.
Walter Fielding and Anna Crowley have to start looking for a new house- but there's not much they can afford! This soon changes when they meet a lonely old con artist who sells them a beautiful mansion at a ridiculously low price. Only there's a catch. The second they move into the house it falls apart, starting with the stairway collapsing to the bathtub falling through the floor to eventually the chimney falling into the house! Finally, they have to renovate the house before the frame collapses but the renovations also prove to be a disaster.
After being evicted from their Manhattan apartment, a couple buy what looks like the home of their dreams - only to find themselves saddled with a bank-account-draining nightmare. Struggling to keep their relationship together as their rambling mansion falls to pieces around them, the two watch in hilarious horror as everything - including the kitchen sink, disppears into the Money Pit.