When Pa Kettle wins a trip to New York City, he and Ma need a babysitter for their 15 kids. Fugitive bank robber, Mike Munger, pretending to be a poet, offers to watch the kids if the naive Kettles deliver a package for him. As Munger attempts to control the rambunctious brood back home, in the City Little Joe repeatedly tries to collect the package containing lucrative loot from Pa.