On opening day of bear hunting season in Michigans Upper Peninsula, a game warden is murdered right under Little Donnys tree stand. Little Donny disappears into the backwoods, forcing sixty-six year old Gertie to use her unique investigative techniques to find her favorite grandson. Gerties search is hampered by her pin-curled bodyguard Kitty, her man-hungry friend Cora Mae whos hot for the guy Gertie secretly admires, and Grandma Johnsonwho should be mushing peas between her new false teeth in the Escanaba Nursing Home instead of setting up camp at Gerties place. What really gets Gerties goat is her son Blaze, the local sheriff, whos more interested in arresting his mom for driving without a license than finding Little Donny or catching the killer.