The Willoughbys Return

This comedic children's sequel picks up 30 years after the first book, in which the selfish Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby abandoned their four children to vacation in the Swiss Alps, where they froze solid on a mountainside.

Two simultaneous events set the plot in motion. In the United States, Congress votes to ban all candy, citing dental health concerns. Meanwhile, a Zurich newspaper reports that an American couple frozen on a minor Alp for three decades has thawed due to global warming. The narrator states the two events are related.

Henry Willoughby, an ill-tempered former banker, digs himself out of the melting snow alongside his equally ill-tempered wife, Frances. Their money is ruined, their credit cards are expired, and they have no idea that 30 years have passed. A maître d' at a Swiss café explains their situation. Mr. Willoughby demands a telephone, not to call his children, whom neither parent ever liked, but to call his bank.

The narrative fills in the intervening decades. After the Willoughbys were declared frozen, the no-nonsense Nanny took their four children: Tim, the eldest; twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B; and youngest daughter Jane. She brought them to the nearby mansion of Commander Melanoff, a billionaire who founded a candy empire called Consolidated Confectionaries, Inc. Melanoff married Nanny, who has since passed away, memorialized in a spotlit oil portrait in the mansion hallway. Tim Willoughby, now 42, runs the candy company and lives in the mansion with his wife, Ruth, and their 11-year-old son, Richie.

When Tim reads the headline about the candy ban, he is devastated and unaware his parents have thawed. Commander Melanoff, now elderly, confirms they are ruined. The factory goes silent, workers are laid off, and trucks carry remaining candy to be burned.

Next door, in a tiny house in the mansion's shadow, lives the Poore family: Mrs. Poore, her 12-year-old son Winston, and her 10-year-old daughter Winifred. As their name suggests, they are extremely poor, eating gruel for breakfast and reusing teabags. Their motto is "make the best of it," though no one fully understands what it means. Their father, Ben Poore, is an encyclopedia salesman who has never sold a single set. He has been away a long time, currently in Alaska hoping to sell encyclopedias and prospect for gold. Winifred is passionate about geology and a devoted reader of Little Women. She frequently compares her mother's sentimental speeches to those of the novel's Marmee, calling the habit "Marming."

The Poore children watch through the fence as Richie plays alone with expensive toys in a joyless manner. Winifred observes that Richie is lonely and suggests they might be needed next door. Meanwhile, from a post office in Whitehorse, in the Yukon, Ben mails a heavy package of rocks he collected at Mineral Creek, Alaska, to Winifred, spending most of his remaining cash on postage. He keeps two rocks with shiny streaks in his pack.

The defrosted Willoughbys arrive at their old house to find strangers living there and are directed to a mansion a few blocks away where someone named Willoughby lives. As they walk, the Poore household splits in two directions. Mrs. Poore decides to open a bed-and-breakfast, and Winston paints the shutters blue while she posts signs advertising amenities like running water and toilet paper. Winston and Winifred head to the mansion, where Tim hires them as companions for the lonely Richie. Before closing the door, Tim notices a bizarre-looking couple approaching the Poores' house and comments that they seem oddly familiar.

The Willoughbys become the B-and-B's first guests, registering under the pseudonym "Mr. and Mrs. Henry Frances." That evening, parallel dinners unfold. At the mansion, the children enjoy wild mushroom bisque, roast beef, and salad. Richie becomes excited about repairing Winston's broken toy car. At the Poores' house, Mrs. Poore serves her guests a salad made from rhododendron and lily of the valley leaves, unaware that both plants are highly poisonous. The guests collapse and lose consciousness. Mrs. Poore rushes to the mansion, and Tim calls 911.

At the hospital, administrators discover the couple's true identity. A secretary finds an obituary declaring both Willoughbys dead 30 years ago. The pathology lab confirms their tissue was previously frozen and defrosted. No one can determine how to handle their expired insurance or impossible ages.

The children explore Richie's private library, where certain books bear the label "MBD," standing for "Might Be Distressing." Richie's parents applied this label to books covering topics such as orphans, mountain climbing, cryogenics, and the Swiss postal system. Over time, Commander Melanoff reveals that these books connect to painful events in his and Tim's lives: His first wife survived an avalanche in Switzerland, stayed in the village, and married the local postmaster. His son became a silent Trappist monk. Nanny died. Tim's parents froze on an Alp.

A postcard arrives from Ben announcing his return on Saturday. Tim agrees to host a welcome dinner at the mansion, since Mrs. Poore's cooking has proven dangerous. Ben hitches home through Canada, at one point riding in a Consolidated Confectionaries truck. The driver shows interest in buying encyclopedias but becomes fixated on Ben's shiny rocks, and the sale falls through.

On Saturday, Ben arrives home with a beard and a big smile, giving his wife a dried wildflower and each child a rock from Alaska. The defrosted Willoughbys are smuggled out of the hospital in a hearse to avoid reporters. In the darkened vehicle, Mr. Willoughby tenderly apologizes to his wife for years of insults, and they hold hands.

At the mansion dinner, Commander Melanoff delivers a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Consolidated Confectionaries while Ben surreptitiously devours every piece of food in reach. When the hearse arrives, Henry and Frances Willoughby are reunited with their son Tim. Henry gives Tim a crumpled Father's Day card with a horse on it, its interior reading "I'm sorry ... I've been a you-know-what," and admits he was a bad father. Tim introduces his parents to Richie, their grandson. The couple is startled to be grandparents, since they appear younger than their own son.

Winston proposes repurposing the idle candy factory equipment to produce toothpaste flavored like the company's famous Lickety Twist licorice, suggesting the name "Lickety Spit." The room erupts in applause. Tim begins scribbling calculations, envisioning a future in which both candy and toothpaste could be produced together.

Winifred, consulting her geology book and a magnifying glass, examines the glittery rocks her father brought home and identifies them as gold nuggets. Henry Willoughby offers to buy every outdated encyclopedia Ben has, but Winifred announces the family no longer needs the money: Her father unknowingly struck gold.

Winifred taps a knife on a glass and tells the room she finally understands what "making the best of it" means. This moment, all of them gathered together, talking and smiling, is the best of it. She grins and acknowledges she has just "Marmed." In the hallway, Nanny's portrait seems to smile down on her newly large and very happy family.