Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) has just been released from a mental hospital. Back at her suburban Baltimore home, she decides her husband is trying to kill her, so she strong-arms her maid, Grizelda, into suffocating him with her rather large buttocks. To escape the slammer, the daffy duo seeks refuge in Mortville, a bizarre shantytown populated by criminals and social outcasts. John Waters directs with his patented brand of gross-out humor.