Tom and Kate Baker have made many sacrifices in their professional lives in order to raise their 12 children. When Tom is offered a job as a Division I college football coach, he moves the entire pack to a suburb in Chicago. This move shakes up the entire family, but when Kate's memoirs get published, she takes off on a book tour. The lack of parental guidance creates problems for all the Baker kids and chaos ensues.

When a drill instructor and several of his cadets disappear during training exercises in Panama, a U.S. DEA agent is called in to investigate the mysterious disapperance.