Barry goes to work at the furniture store with Murray; Adam and Pops struggle to keep the fact that they watched an R-rated movie from Beverly.

Adam works on his new persona for the first day of high school that he hopes will up his coolness level. Meanwhile, Beverly gets her teaching certification to become a substitute teacher. But when she is demoted to sub-janitor, she sends the Goldberg kids to a Saturday detention.

Adam is assigned a term paper on a great person in history, and he decides to make a movie about his grandfather but finds all of Pop’s war stories mundane. Pops takes matters into his own hands and decides to tell more exciting stories based on an old television series. Meanwhile, Erica returns home to confront Beverly for over-mothering her. Murray insists Beverly teach Erica and Barry basic life skills, but she worries Erica and Barry will be too independent.

Adam is torn between following Beverly's rules when it comes to off-campus lunch or going to the mall food court with his friends. Meanwhile, after using Barry's college ID to get food at the dorm, Geoff goes overboard and becomes the "student" Barry wishes he could be.