The lives of two female neighbors intersect when their individual obsessions begin to unravel.

As a little girl, Dodo cannot walk. She associates herself with "The Little Mermaid" and wonders if she would give up something of her own in order to own a pair of feet. Fortunately, she gains a pair of feet after an operation, and hence is indulged in collecting and wearing beautiful shoes and heels even after she has grown up. She marries Smiley, a handsome but shy dentist. They live a happy life, except that Dodo still keeps buying shoes. Later, she reluctantly accepts Smiley's request to stop buying shoes, until one fateful day when she accidentally walks right into the shoe store ...

Captain Crowther's lot is not a happy one! Five of his crew have to be replaced and at such short notice before the voyage begins there isn't much to choose from. Not only does he get the five most incompetent shipmates ever to sail the seven seas, but the passengers turn out to be a rather strange bunch too. The SS Happy Wanderer will never be the same.