Eddie Murphy stars as shy Dr. Sherman Klump, a kind, brilliant, ‘calorifically challenged’ genetic professor. When beautiful Carla Purty joins the university faculty, Sherman grows desperate to whittle his 400-pound frame down to size and win her heart. So, with one swig of his experimental fat-reducing serum, Sherman becomes ‘Buddy Love’, a fast-talking, pumped-up , plumped down Don Juan.

Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship.