The Moochmore girls are certain they all suffer from some kind of undiagnosed mental illness - because if they are not crazy then they are just unpopular. Their mother Shirley (Rebecca Gibney) - unable to cope with her demanding daughters and unsupported by her philandering politician husband, Barry (Anthony LaPaglia) - suffers a nervous breakdown. After Barry commits his wife to a mental hospital (telling his constituents that she is on holiday) he finds himself alone with 5 teenage girls he barely knows. Desperate, he impulsively picks up a hitchhiker named Shaz (Toni Collette) and installs her in his home as nanny to his daughters.