Lisa's is planning to have a hassel-free thanksgiving, but she gets more than she bargained for when she avoids a holiday with her realatives. For starters, Kevin has to miss out on the festivities for a basketball recruiting trip. But he can't complain -- since it's in Maui! Lisa invites DeeDee to throw thanksgiving for thier coworkers at her house -- and Lisa winds up doing all the work. Then Connie arrives unannounced, hurling accusations that Lisa and Lyndon are having an affair, and that Kevin has left her. So Connie finally confides that she started a divorce fund for Lisa ""for when it all blows up in"" her face. Mr. Nash has his own worries when his teenage daughter comes to visit -- and ignore him. And Tess and Matt have problems when they try to perform a Thanksgiving play.

The Hunter family is in an uproar when Lisa's mother Connie moves in with them, and quickly seizes control of every aspect of their lives. Hiring connie to take care of the kids seemed like such a simple solution to Lisa and Kevin. what they hadn't bargained for was Connie's insistence on doing things her way—regardless of Lisa and Kevin's wishes. Desperately wanting to regain control over their household matters, Lisa confronts Connie, but the discussion quickly disintegrates into a mother-daughter screaming match which has surprising results.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Lisa finds herself in hot water when she defies Mr Nash's order to plead a case and not take it to court. Not only does the case blow up in her face, with Mr. Nash there to see it, but he lays down the law: one more slip-up and she gets the pink slip.

Lisa and her coworkers amuse themselves joking about a case Lyndon is assigned involving a man ""getting splinters"" with a tree on the lawn of the public library. Meanwhile, Matt builds a robot, the TC5-1000, to help out with tedious mailroom chores, and becomes paranoid that everyone likes the robot better than him. Tess finds herself in a heap of trouble when she kisses a little boy on the playground ""against his wishes,"" and is suspended from school. Lisa pays a visit to the paranoid principal, ""Blair the Square,"" and inadvertantly ends up arguing with and mocking him. Finally, she pays a visit to the school board, and proceeds to annhiliate thier policy on sexual harassment.

When Connie gets conned out of her retirement funds, by a man who reminds her of Kenny Rogers, she takes him to court. But Lisa's irritated that Lyndon is assigned to the case too... Namely since Connie respects Lyndon's opinion more than her own daughter's.

When the Hunters get robbed, they get to be friends with their new neighbor, Marty, and his son. The next thing they know, Marty's gotten their possessions returned. They figure out how he pulled those stings when a picture of Lisa and Marty ends up on Mr. Nash's desk -- Marty's the head of the mob!