Reginald Perrin is dead... killed by a falling billboard advertising the very company he insured his life with. His wife Elizabeth, her military brother Jimmy, their daughter Linda and her odd, now ex-husband Tom, and Reggie's colleagues Doc, C.J., David and Joan are brought to the reading of his will.

Beautiful solicitor Ms Hackstraw advises then all that Reggie's worldly goods are to be divided equally amongst them - the sum of 1 million pounds each. But there is one very small condition: each and every one of them must do something that is totally and utterly absurd before they will receive a penny.

Causing consternation, the inheritors ultimately decide to band together in a combined effort to prove themselves worthy of Reggie, otherwise the money will go to the Battersea Dogs Home.