Timid, immature would-be author Owen still lives with his domineering mother, and fantasises about killing her. When his English tutor offers advice on how to write a good murder mystery, he gets the wrong idea and becomes convinced the teacher is asking him to kill his ex-wife, and will dispose of the monstrous matriarch in return. Black comedy, inspired by Hitchcock's thriller Strangers on a Train, directed by and starring Danny DeVito, with Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey, Kim Greist and Rob Reiner.

Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.