High school English teacher Ed Budwieser is another Walter Mitty. His fantasy is about moving from Kirkland, Kansas to the West Coast of Mexico with two molls, reading poetry together on the beach and engaging in long philosophical discussions and engaging in carnal activity. He buys a used Winnebago and tries to escape westward, leading him to a hospital stay. His wife Mildred is a down-to-earth woman with a problem of her own, beginning with a slight fling with her dentist boss. This "affair" leads her to a stay in a mental hospital, from which she is rescued by Carole Digby, the dentist's wife. The two women plot to teach Ed a lesson. After Ed dies, Mildred and Carole break into the author's house, where Carole begins to change the storyline while Mildred climbs into the author's computer to await further instructions. Ed awakens on Easter Sunday with a resurrection body. He is ushered by two his molls into the Wheel of Fortune studio, where he wins a trip for himself and two guests to a Secret Destination. The three are flown to the West Coast of Antarctica, where Ed and the molls parachute onto the icy wastes below. He jumps first, but finds that only one person follows him: Mildred. They decide to travel by sled to the South Pole, using penguins to pull them on a makeshift sleigh. On their arrival, they find themselves inside a quonset hut, where there is an international team of scientists in the midst of a Christmas Eve celebration. Ed convinces his flock of penguins to perform skits. They rebel, trash the place, steal the vodka, and disappear into the wilderness. Left to their own device, the Budwiesers discover a manhole cover just as a group of net-bearing police are let off a helicopter. The two quickly take cover and find themselves on an escalator going down a long shining tube into the bowels of the earth. They finally arrive back in Kirkland, where Ed finally discovers that his wife has been an accessory to the plot.