John Henderson (Albert Brooks) is a successful science fiction writer who is finalizing his second divorce. He is perplexed by the issues he has with women, realizing that none of them supported or encouraged him. John decides to initiate an experiment that will help him understand what went wrong in his relationships: he moves back in with his widowed mother Beatrice (Debbie Reynolds), occupying the same bedroom he had as a child. His sports agent brother Jeff thinks John is oversensitive to their mother's criticisms, while John believes that their mother favors Jeff.