Quentin's bad moods are puzzling to Grace. Perhaps he needs a male role model. Grace tells Russell that she is not ready to have a new relationship. These serious discussions take place up on the roof.

Grace's status at the refinery becomes permanent and she gets a raise, but has to take the night shift and will miss the school play Libby is in playing a pork chop.

Libby is entered in a beauty pageant with a friend. The two mothers don't hit it off very well. Libby sings ""Tomorrow"".

Quentin is totally out of control and getting into fights at school, so Grace takes him to a child psychologist.

Quentin has a fight at school and Grace is angry when she discovers that Quentin used a racial slur that started it.

Grace is ready, but her boyfriend reneges on the grounds he is celibate due to two earlier affairs that went wrong.

Quentin creates the impression at school that he is seriously ill and Grandma Jean has a new beau with an amazing past.

Libby has been suffering from stomach pangs and Grace finds out they are from a stress-related ulcer.

Grace is going crazy trying to finish her paper on ""The Grapes of Wrath,"" and she keeps reminding Quentin that he also has a book report that's due. When Martha, one of Grace's classmates, says she's apartment hunting, Grace jumps at the chance to have her as a tenant. Martha moves in with her parrot, Ignatius, and Libby and Quentin are both charmed by her. Even Jean thinks she's great, but Wade says he thinks he's met her before but just can't place her until he sees the parrot and realizes that Martha is a stripper that he knows from patrolling the strip club where she works. Grace has no problem with Martha's profession and admires her efforts to continue her education. Grace encounters Mrs. Sheffield who tells her she's given Quentin a C+ on his ""Grapes of Wrath"" book report, and Grace confronts Quentin about stealing her work. And when Martha drops out of school and moves back to St. Louis without even saying goodbye to the kids, Grace feels Martha has let both them and her down a

Libby visits the bridge construction site on a field trip and discovers that the Victory Tree that holds a significant place in the town's history is to be cut down. She's very upset, so Grace suggests she start a letter writing campaign to save the tree. Libby even stages a demonstration at the site, which makes D.C. irate that construction has been halted. He thinks the whole thing is Grace's fault because she's the one who suggested the field trip. Libby's amazed that Grace doesn't share her concern for the tree; but Grace tells her the bridge is important too, both for the town and for their family. A town meeting is called to discuss the fate of the tree. When D.C. tells everyone that the bridge represents thirty- million-dollars in revenue for the town, it's certain that the Victory Tree is doomed, but Grace demands that Libby also be allowed to have her say. Also, Russell has expanded his store and has built a fancy soda fountain. Russell used the town meeting as a chance to plu

When D.C. and Grace have a meeting in a motel with an equipment supplier, gossip that they're having an affair flies around Victory. Jean gets the news at the fabric store, Libby hears it while going door to door for the school candy sale, and Wade hears the rumor that D.C. was at a motel with a prostitute. D.C. is upset that the rumors will cause Grace's co-workers to suspect favoritism, but Grace refuses to let the situation bother her. She flippantly starts a couple of stories of her own – that Russell's adopted, that a certain teacher in town has posed for a nudie magazine, and that the Kellys' neighbor Earl has been burying bodies in the backyard. Things backfire on Grace when it's revealed that Russell is adopted but Floyd has never gotten around to telling him. Mrs. Sheffield sheepishly reveals to Grace that she may be the teacher in question; she did pose, but it was as an underwear model in the Sears catalogue. The police arrive at Earl's and dig up his backyard where he's bee

Wade shows up with Dan Gabriel, his old commanding officer in Vietnam, who's now a covert operations/demolition expert. Dan and Grace begin a verbal sparring match almost immediately. He's a warrior and a hard-core conservative, and Grace hates everything he stands for. Later, Dan has no trouble winning over Jean, and he talks to Libby about how to use psychological intimidation to defend herself against a bully who put gum in her hair. An angry Grace tells Dan to keep himself and his violent approach to life away from her kids, but their conversation ends in a passionate kiss. Grace is horrified that she's madly attracted to a guy she hates, and it's obvious that Dan's equally attracted. But Dan dives into the river to do some demolition work for D.C. and doesn't come back out. Everyone assumes he's dead, but later, Dan, very much alive, appears at Grace's and tells her he faked his death because he needs to disappear for awhile, but he'll be back to see her.