Drunk Parents starts off with Frank (Alec Baldwin) and Nancy (Salma Hayek) Teagarten tearfully bidding farewell to college-bound daughter Rachel (Michelle Veintimilla), before they head home to get drunk on the lawn of their massive estate in the suburbs. But while the Teagartens appear to have achieved all the goals of suburban life and the highest standards of materialism, audiences quickly learn that this is all a facade.

It turns out that despite their shiny black Range Rover and Tudor-style mansion, Frank and Nancy have been hiding their increasing financial difficulties from Rachel and their social circles. With Frank’s bankrupt business, the couple realizes that they don’t have the money to pay for their daughter’s college, save their home, or pay off their car. 

So Frank and Nancy decide to rectify the situation. It starts with an ill-fated yard sale, but after that goes nowhere fast, the couple starts scheming. With just days before their car is about to get repossessed, Frank accidentally (and drunkenly) rents out the home of his wealthy out-of-town neighbor (Aasif Mandvi).

But it turns out that Carl (Jim Gaffigan), the man Frank rents the house out to, is a registered sex offender, which the couple only finds out when he arrives and starts going door-to-door as a result of his court-mandated disclosure.

In an effort to not link their neighbor’s house to a sex offender, Frank and Nancy switch houses with Carl but when a vigilante group shows up at their neighbor’s house, the couple is mistaken for pedophiles themselves, bound, gagged, and kidnapped to the middle of the woods, where they’re held at gunpoint. 

There are a lot of twists and turns that ensue, including a drunken night with two unhoused individuals (cameos by Colin Quinn and Will Ferrell) during which Frank and Nancy re-prioritize their lives and remember what’s really important. The next day they also come up with a new business idea that they later try to pitch to their country club friends (this again leads to more drunken shenanigans). 

At the end of the movie, Rachel comes home and finds everything out about her parents' financial situation, but ultimately, stands with them. The united front also helps to chase off the vigilantes who’re still after Frank and Nancy for pedophilia, and the family manages to get neighbor Nigel’s home back in order before he returns from out of town. The movie ends some months later, with the Teagartens hosting Thanksgiving with their family and friends.