Édouard Molinaro

The film opens with a performance at the Birdcage, a nightclub situated in South Beach, Miami. The club is owned by Armand Goldman, a gay Jew in a relationship with the club's star Albert, who performs as a drag queen. Armand's son Val returns from college with an announcement: he is getting married to a schoolmate, Barbara Keeley, whose father Kevin Keeley is a conservative politician from Ohio who founded the Coalition for Moral Order, and who is seeking reelection. The problem is that Barbara hid the truth from her parents - she informed them that Val's father is a cultural attaché for Greece and that Val's mother is a housewife, and that their last name was Coleman. The Keeleys, meanwhile, are in the midst of their own crisis: Keeley's co-founder for the Coalition, Senator Jackson, died of a heart attack while in bed with an underage black prostitute. This event makes headlines, and gets the Keeleys swamped with hordes of reporters and threatens to ruin their political position. Kevins wife Louise proposes that they go to see Val's parents, who they believe are a traditional wholesome family, as a double measure to both avoid the reporters and to restore their impeccable public image. They set off, but are being tracked by a couple of reporters, who are themselves tracked by competing reporters... Val begs his father to go along with the charade, and after some deliberation he concedes. They both set to work remodeling their apartment into a more austere and simple home, and dress up the flamboyant gay manservant Agador as a butler/cook. Less simple is asking Albert for support; an effeminate, temperamental and sensitive partner, he is offended at Armand and Val asking him to be absent due to his obvious gayness, and when he tries to act like a heterosexual he fails miserably. With no other choices, Armand and Val decide to call upon Val's birthmother Katherine, a former showgirl who left Val with Armand and ran off to become a businesswoman. Asking Katherine is the last straw for Albert and he decides to go to a cemetery; Armand calms him down and reaffirms their devotion by giving him partnership of the Birdcage. The Keeleys arrive, and the night starts off fairly well, with only a few hiccups. Unfortunately, Katherine, who was supposed to join the party, gets stuck in traffic. Unexpectedly Albert dresses up as a woman and takes her place, to the horror of Armand and Val; bizarrely his masquerade works successfully and Kevin is even smitten with Mrs Coleman and her liberalness, much to Louise's indignation. However, both Kevin and Louise start to suspect that the Colemans are hiding something, especially when they are served an awful mishmash soup made of all sorts of ingredients (including hardboiled eggs), and notice that the plates hold pictures of men in disturbing poses... Katherine finally arrives, and everything falls apart: Kevin and Louise find out that Val's parents are gay Jewish nightclub owners, and they decide to leave immediately. But they discover a mass of news crews outside who tracked them down, and duck back in. Although the Keeleys have warmed up to their in-laws, they are now trapped inside and for them to appear in the presence of such people would finish their political careers. Albert hits on a brilliant scheme: he dresses the Keeleys up in drag and gives an impromptu performance, and as the show goes on Katherine successfully gets the Keeleys out of the Birdcage without any interception from reporters. The film ends with Val and Barbara getting married, in an interfaith ceremony presided by both a rabbi and priest, attended by Kevin and Louise, Katherine and Armand and Albert.

The titular gay couple become involved with local cops and foreign spies when one of them unwittingly obtains a roll of stolen microfilm. Nightclub owner Renato and his transvestite companion/lover Albin becoming involved with the local cops and foreign spies when Albin unwittingly gets his hands on a roll of stolen microfilm. The gay couple then hide out in Renato's native Italy, but find little peace there with their frequent bickering among themselves.

In Saint-Tropez, France on the sunny French Riveria, Albin (Michel Serrault) and Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) have been lovers for over 20 years. They own the La Cage aux Folles (Birds of a Feather), a scandalous nightclub where transvestites perform. Albin, under his stage name Zaza, is the star attraction. One evening, Renato's 19-year-old son Laurent (Remy Laurent) returns home from college after studying in Paris where he tells his father that he is engaged to Andrea (Lusia Maneri) the daughter of Monsieur Charrier (Michel Galabru) a conservative government official who is the secretary of the Union of Moral Order. Andrea has lied to her parents that Renato, Laurent's father, is the cultural attache for the Italian ambassador and that his mother is a housewife. When the local news headlines announce that the elderly president of the Union of Moral Order has died of a sudden heart attack while having sex with a 13-year-old French-African prostitute, Charrier worries about his own reputation when reporters hound him to and from his office and his home. His wife (Carmen Scarpitta) convinces him that Andrea's marriage to such a reputable family will raise him above the scandal. Laurent invites Andrea and her parents to his home in Saint-Tropez to meet his family. He gets Renato to change the flamboyant decor of their apartment, making more conservative looking... getting rid of all of the provocative paintings and nude male statues. During this, Renato visits Laurent's mother Simone (Claire Maurier), a film actress whom he has not seen since she seduced him 20 years ago. He asks her to make an appearance to play-act at the dinner tonight for their son's sake. She accepts the offer, but on the condition that they rekindle their brief tryst. Renato refuses but Simone tries to seduce him, just like she did 20 years earlier. Albin, who accompanied Renato to Simone's house, walks in on them and runs out upset. Renato runs after him, but when he arrives back at their apartment, Albin has moved out. Renato finds Albin at a local train station seated on a bench waiting for the train to arrive to take him away. During a long talk between them, Renato convinces Albin that he loves him only. That evening, Renato and Laurent want the effeminate Albin to lay low until the end of the dinner party for their sake as not to bring on any awkwardness. Albin is none to pleased about being left out, but agrees to do so. At 6:00pm the guests arrive. Renato and Laurent try to make Monsieur and Madame Charrier comfortable with small talk, while Andrea, who already knows the truth about Laurent's family, plays along. Simone phones where she tells Laurent that she is delayed by traffic while driving from her house to the dinner party. While Laurent and Renato try to delay the dinner for a little while longer, Albin arrives, dressed up as a woman in his Zaza custom and pretends to be Laurent's mother, while both Renato and Laurent react very nervous. Laurent sneaks out to try to head off his real mother. Dinner proceeds where Charrier thinks things are very odd when Jacob (Benny Luke), the butler, is acting very strangely, laughing at Albin in his drag getup and shrieking when a champagne cork flies through the air. Charrier tells his wife that he suspects that Jacob might be gay. Things get even more hilarious when during the dinner, Albin's wig is knocked askew, and he tries to re-arrange but without any success. Then finally Simone shows up and with the game up, Albin finally takes off his wig and admits the truth to Charrier about himself, Renato and their family and that they own the La cage aux folles drag nightclub that is downstairs from the apartment. Just then, the transvestites from the nightclub enter the apartment to congratulate Renato and Albin on their 20th anniversary. Charrier is beside himself. He tries to leave, but sees that reporters have followed him from Paris and blocked the back doors of the building and nightclub. Wanting to spare the humiliation from their future in-laws, Albin and Renato dress up Charrier in drag at the nightclub so that he, Madame Charrier and Andrea can leave without being photographed by the reporters now swarming the nightclub looking for them. In the final scene sometime later, Laurent and Andrea get married. At the ceremony, Albin is jealous that Simone is also in attendance and sitting next to Andrea's parents. Renato assures Albin that everything will be good between them and the two of them hold hands.