Paris in the early1900s: a mother cat named Duchess and her three kittens, Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse, live in a mansion with their owner, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille. When Adelaide's butler, Edgar, discovers that he must share his inheritance with the cats, he kidnaps the cats and leaves them in the countryside. The aristocats are not used to living on the road, but luckily they meet an alley cat, Thomas O'Malley, who decides to help them find the way home ...