Peter Rokeby loses his job as advertising copywriter, and resolves to become a freelance writer. Owing to this change in circumstances, he and his wife Sally move with their children into a more modest home in Meadow Road, Willesden. The family soon finds that the ghost of a previous owner, Yetta Feldman, still occupies the residence, and has been scaring occupants away for years.

Yetta is a stereotypical interfering, middle-aged Jewish mother who died suddenly after choking on a chicken bone. While Sally can both see and speak to their ghost, Peter — much to his frustration — initially cannot. The family agrees to help Yetta find her grown-up daughter Carole ("Carol-with-an-E").