En un carrer de Nova York, la misèria i la delinqüència conviuen amb la riquesa dels llogaters d'un luxós bloc d'apartaments. Inevitablement aquests aguts contrastos acabaran desencadenant tensions entre els dos mons.

El senyor Popper és un agent immobiliari que un dia rep un paquet amb un pingüí viu que li trastoca la vida completament. És l'últim souvenir dels que li envia el seu pare des dels llocs on va de viatge. Després, rep un altre paquet amb cinc pingüins més, que es veu obligat a quedar-se per no defraudar els seus fills, que se n'encapritxen. Conviure amb els pingüins i aconseguir la compra d'un edifici per a l'empresa on treballa no serà gens fàcil.

Bertram Pincus, a cranky, people-hating Manhattan dentist, develops the unwelcome ability to see dead people. Really annoying dead people. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, a smooth-talking ghost, who pesters him into a romantic scheme involving his widow Gwen. They are soon entangled in a hilarious predicament between the now and the hereafter!

A nursing student forced to quit school for family reasons winds up taking a job as a doorman in an elite apartment building in New York City, where he sparks to one of his residents.

Waldisney works as a doorman in a building where confusion is constant. However, the employee is great at maintaining a certain order. When wrongly accused of stealing something, he will need to prove that he is anything but a thief.

The Hardys wish to have a quiet evening in their apartment, but are interrupted when the Laurels pay a visit. Stan and Ollie go out for ice cream, and manage to prevent a shrewish woman from committing suicide on the way back home. The woman is ungrateful and makes threats against the them unless they look after her. They spend a chaotic evening trying to keep her hidden from their wives.