Down on their luck, the Tooting family buys an old camper van and begins repairing it, but after installing an engine that once belonged to an extraordinary car, they are off to find other original parts, pursued by a sinister man who wants Chitty for himself.
The Tootings plan to go home, but they accidentally send themselves back to the Jurassic Age, and after being chased by a T-rex they head to Prohibition-era New York where Chitty enters a race to the lost city of El Dorado and back again.
The Tootings are struggling to find and collaborate with Chitty's builders, the Potts family, when a fiendish criminal kidnaps Little Harry and steals the magical car.