A.C.O.D. brings the story of Carter (Adam Scott) and his dysfunctional family. As the movie opens, we see 8 mm footage of Carter's 9th birthday party at the family's lakeside summer house, where his mom and dad are screaming at each other at the top of their lungs. In a cleaver montage, we see the family tree of Carter's mom and dad's subsequent marriages (in plural, indeed), including his dad's current wife (played by Amy Poehler). We then come back to the present day, some 20 years later. Carter's younger brother Duke plans to get married, and Duke would love for his parents, who haven't spoken for 20 years, to be there. Carter tries to figure out a way. Meanwhile, Carter is dealing with his own love life, including his longtime girlfriend Lauren (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who is getting tired of waiting for Carter to pose pop the big question. To deal with all the pressure, Carter looks up Dr. Judith (Jane Lynch), who is not really a doctor but does talk with patients about divorce issues. She wrote a book 20 years ago called Children of Divorce about Carter and other kids like him. Dr. Judith now hatches the idea of writing a sequel called A.C.O.D. or Adult Children of Divorce.