Raymond "Ray" Barone (Ray Romano) is a sportswriter who loves his family, even though they make him crazy - when he was a child, he "prayed for normal".
His wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton) is a good housewife and mother, but not a very good cook (although there are a few exceptions) and she often butts heads with her meddling mother-in-law, Marie (Doris Roberts).
Marie often interferes in Ray's life and criticizes Debra for usually cooking pre-made food, her housewife and parenting methods, et cetera, and the reason Marie criticizes Debra's mediocre cooking skills or cooking "the easy way" is because Marie herself is a virtuoso at cooking.
Ray's dad, Frank (Peter Boyle) is extremely sardonic and although rarely thanks Marie for cooking his meals, he always raids their refrigerator or Ray's, depending on whose house he's at.
Ray's older brother, Robert (Brad Garrett) is jealous of him as Ray is "the favorite child" and because Ray has a wife who loves him and children of his own, while Robert's first wife, Joanna left him. However, Robert later gets a girlfriend, Amy MacDougall (Monica Horan).
Ray and Debra have a daughter, Ally (Madylin Sweetin) who has inherited a little bit of Frank's sass, but has a good heart and they also have two twin boys, Geoffrey and Michael (Sawyer Sweetin, Sullivan Sweetin).
The show isn't really about the kids, but it is later shown that Geoffrey is more skilled at things (such as making his bed) than Michael. Even though his family makes him nuts sometimes, Raymond would still do anything for them and loves them all - even Robert.