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Read the complete plot breakdown of Parent Trap III (1989), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Jeffrey Wyatt [Barry Bostwick] is the widowed father of identical triplet teenage daughters, Lisa [Leanna Creel], Jessie [Monica Lacy], and Megan [Joy Creel]. As he picks his daughters up from the airport, he neglects to tell them over the summer he has become engaged to Cassie McGuire [Patricia Richardson]. Cassie wants to redesign their California beach house with the help of house designer Susan Evers [Hayley Mills]. Jeffrey initially doesn’t like Susan’s ideas, but comes around to allowing them due to Cassie.
Lisa, who is dating David [Chris Gartin], has invited a boy she met in Paris named Hawk [Jon Pennell], a “bad boy,” to eat at their house. She doesn’t know how to break it to David that she finds Hawk more unpredictable. She asks Jessie to pretend to be Lisa on a date with David, so Lisa can go on a date with Hawk while their father goes on a date with Cassie, Susan, and Nick [Ray Baker], his best friend. As the adults are getting ready for their double date, Susan compliments Jessie going out with David, Lisa tries to cover up the ruse by saying she is Jessie, only for her father to chuckle even he gets the girls confused on occasion. On their date, Jessie is bewildered to be at a Welcome Home Lisa party with all of their friends. She embarrasses herself during a karaoke dance skit called The Jackson Three (a parody of the Jackson Five), when she is made to do the Janet Jackson song What Have You Done for Me Lately.
Hawk is not wanting to settle down and be Lisa’s boyfriend. He asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. Later that night, Jeffrey figures out the switch and grounds the girls for three weeks, with David disappointed in Lisa and Jessie. Lisa unleashes her feelings and tells Jeffrey that she doesn’t like the jealous, snobbish Cassie, and neither do her sisters. The next morning, Susan speaks with Jessie and Megan, saying her earlier compliment was not an honest mistake, but that she suspected Lisa and Jessie were switching identities, and even shows them a picture of herself with her twin sister, Sharon Grand [Hayley Mills].
Lisa runs away with Hawk on his motorcycle only to break down at a diner. Jessie and Megan, using David’s car, find her. Jeffrey, Susan, and David also do so. Hawk and David fight in the diner, causing the police to be called, and Hawk breaks up with Lisa. David begins to like Jessie better than Lisa. Cassie becomes angry that Susan went with Jeffrey to the diner. The girls begin to befriend and like Susan. They set up a date for her and Jeffrey by not telling Nick and Cassie to come. Jeffrey expresses his admiration for Susan, who refuses because he is engaged. She quits working on the Wyatts’ house and continues with Nick’s condo and Cassie moves the date to two days away. The girls go to Susan’s apartment and meet Sharon Grand, Susan’s twin sister. Sharon agrees to help them set up Jeffrey and Susan.
On the wedding day, Sharon and the girls lock Jeffrey and Susan in the garage shed, resulting in Jeffrey missing the wedding. Cassie, devastated, hooks up with Nick and drives away. David and Jessie become a couple. Jeffrey and Susan realize their love for each other after playing the piano and singing to the music box she bought and then gave to him. Sharon and the girls take down the shed wall, revealing Jeffrey and Susan about to kiss.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:32
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