Mary gets an engagement ring and phone calls from Matt, a freshman at UCLA, but doesn't tell anyone in the family about the ring or why Matt is calling.

So what's going on? As Donna says, ""Alex, our daughter has a secret.""

Alex's Uncle Dan takes a break from traveling all over the world. Jeff likes the idea of going to Alaska, Saudi Arabia, Malaya, Australia, and doing whatever he wants, just like Uncle Dan. Jeff decides to join him. Will Donna and Alex allow him to go? Would you believe, yes?

Jeff and his friends get into trouble when they are discovered using an abandoned house as a hang-out. This prompts Donna and the other mothers to create a nice meeting place for the children.

Alex lays down the law when Jeff and Mary slack off on their responsibilities at home and their schoolwork. Now Alex is furious when it appears that Mary didn't come home from a bowling date with Roger on time.

Donna makes Jeff take trumpet lessons when she discovers he has perfect pitch. Jeff would rather be on the track team.

While Alex was the ""belle of the ball"" with his fantastic dancing at the Woman's Medical Auxiliary Dance, the dance cost more to produce than the income from ticket sales provided. Each member agrees to contribute $27 using her skills in moneymaking to make up the budget shortfall. Donna will sell 54 jars of her famous pickle recipe at fifty cents per jar and donate the money to the Auxiliary. Will Donna's plan work?

A lady spots Donna and Mary having lunch in a restaurant, so she stops to say hello. She recognized Donna, even though ""it's been 13 years."" Donna doesn't recognize her but is polite and too embarrassed to ask her name. Later, Donna realizes she must find out who the mystery woman was.

Jeff just can't seem to do anything right --- he slams the door and the angel food cake in the oven droops; his model airplane has cockeyed wings; airplane glue gets on the carpet, so he bleaches it out! The family needs to build up his spirits, so when he does mediocre imitations of movie stars like James Cagney, Peter Lorre, and Edward G. Robinson, he gets all the family's praise. So he decides to enter the upcoming school talent show! Now what can Mary, Donna, and Alex do?

The new doctor has a Japanese Geisha girl for a wife. She is constantly seeing to her husband's needs, can't do enough for him. The married couples of Hilldale have a difficult time adjusting to her. Leave it to Donna to ""Americanize"" her in matters of wifely duties.

While babysitting for the Damons, Mary meets their older son, Rick, who has dropped out of college because he wasn't accepted by his father's old fraternity. He plans to join the Foreign Legion and wants Mary to help him.

Dr. Steinhaus is retiring as the head of the Board of Health. Donna thinks this is the perfect opportunity for Alex to have a position that offers him more regular hours and she intends to help him get it.

The piano becomes a ""parking lot"" with everyone dropping things on it, like books, the newspaper, so Alex decides to sell it. All of a sudden Mary has a problem with that idea and won't let it go. She'll start practicing again, every day. It turns out a boy she'd like to date just loves to play the piano!

A story about every married couple's dilemma: what decisions can a husband make on his own and which require a conference for his wife's permission? Like Alex and Joe, who tell the guys they will go fishing and they don't need to ask their wives. But see, Joe has a system: he bribes his wife Myra with an expensive gift first. Now Alex, on the other hand, faces an episode-long issue with Donna about this matter. Does he resort to a bribe, too?

Alex moves his pediatric practice out of the house and into a new office downtown.

Jeff's team-mate on the baseball team has an overbearing father who drives the son hard and constantly berates him, thinking this will help him be a star player someday. Alex tries to set him straight.