Jack and Carly are newlyweds anxious to prove to themselves and to the world that they can make their marriage work. She's running a fledgling catering business and has been married twice before--to Dante, a blue-collar would-be musician with whom she had a son, high-school freshman Will; and also to Sheldon, a rich businessman who is the father of her younger daughter, Sarah, 11. Jack is a schoolteacher who has an about-to-turn 16 year-old-daughter, Nicole, and is divorced from her mother, TV actress Stephanie.

The ""blended"" family has been living in their new Manahattan apartment two weeks, and while Jack and Carly are wildly in love, the kids are getting testy. Nicole and Sarah are both chafing about having to share a room, and Will is infatuated with his beautiful stepsister, as evidenced by him ""accidentally"" walking in on her in the bathroom. Now Sheldon enters the picture saying he thinks it would be best if Sarah came to live with him. Carly asks for two weeks to see how things

Carly is planning a 16th birthday party for Nicole, the first birthday for the new family. At school, Jack's ex-wife Stephanie, star of the action-adventure show ""Thena,"" shows up and creates a scene. She's in town for a while and invites herself to Nicole's party. Carly is concerned about her first meeting with Stephanie and is afraid she might be sniffing around her ex-husband again. Whe Stephanie and Carly are alone together for the fisrt time Steph breaks down crying about her split with her current companion Stan and her messed-up life, getting a little more intimate than Carly would like. Stephanie announces to everyone that she will finding a place in New York so she can be close to her daughter. At the birthday party Stan shows up, saying he wants to get back together with Stephanie and marry her. Jack and Carly counsel the couple and let them spend time alone in their bedroom to decide what to do. The sounds coming from the bedroom indicate the reconcilation was successful, bu

Carly meets a New York Times reporter who is doing a story about women balancing career and family, and she is interested in profiling her. But when Carly invites her over for dinner, the reporter gets an eyeful of the more chaotic side of extended family life, plus Jack and Carly get into an argument about keeping secrets from each other.

While looking at some old photos, Carly is inspired to set up a shoot for a family Christmas picture, even though it's only October. Jack's ""traditional"" Santa Claus sweater is at his old dry cleaner Tony's place, which Carly wants him to give up now that he lives so far away. When Jack goes to retrieve the sweater and give Tony the news that he won't be using him anymore, the dry cleaner petulantly refuses to hand over the sweater without a ticket. Sarah, under the influence of Sheldon's wife Marianne, thinks she needs a nose job, which causes a big argument between the adults. Then Will gets a black eye at school defending the honor of his stepsister Nicole. Topping off a day of disasters, Carly's employee Newton delivers unseasonable decorations to the apartment.

The pressures of work are keeping Carly and Jack apart more and more. He surprises her with a picnic at her office but she can't even take fifteen minutes to enjoy it. Jack decides not to go schmooze at the faculty Halloween party and Carly lets Grace handle the big toy manufacturer's party so the couple can spend the evening together. But Carly can't stay away from her big event, so Jack heads for the faculty party. He doesn't stay there long and ends up at Carly's party. While there, he pretends he's not Carly's husband and talks up her virtues to several prospective clients. After the party, these same clients see Jack and Carly making out, and thinking she's cheating on her husband, they cancel plans to give her their business.

Jack and Carly's neighbor old Mr. Sandzimier dies in the apartment next door and the couple have their eye on moving in there, a prospect which excites their kids, too. They meet Sandzimier's distruaght son Donald, and trying to be delicate and tactful, make him an offer for the apartment. Sandzimier breaks out laughing at the figure they give him. Sheldon makes an offer to buy the place so Sarah and the others will have a bigger place to live, and Stephanie enters the bidding, looking to be closer to Nicole. Carly and Jack convince the two not to bid on the apartment, then make their offer again to Sandzimier, who thinks they are vultures.

Carly and Jack are alone in the apartment, except for the odd roach or two. They start to feel amorous and head for bed, but discover they are out of birth control. Jack is ready to run out to the drug store during a thunderstorm, but then it occurs to him that Will might have some ""protection"" somewhere in his room. Guiltily, he searches Will's room and finds a condom. Excitedly he returns to Carly, but when she finds out where the condom came from, she's disturbed that Will didn't speak about the subject with her and the romantic mood evaporates. When Dante brings Will home Carly questions Dante about it and is further upset to find that he's the one who gave Will the condom without consulting her. Also, there is a slight thaw in the relationship between Sarah and Nicole after Sarah's father cancels plans to be with her.

Dante arrives at the apartment with Heather and announces that they are getting married. Will is delighted and is asked to be his father's best man. Carly is happy, too. She finally feels like she won't be responsible for Dante anymore and best of all she won't have to pay him any alimony. To celebrate, she goes on a spending spree. At Sarah's slumber party that night, Jack plays a nature program on the new laserdisc player for the girls. They are all disappointed, but soon are watching wide-eyed at the grisly displays on the disc. Dante shows up at the door looking for a place to spend the night--Heather just kicked him out and the wedding is off.

Dante refuses to talk about what is behind the split but Carly demands to know. He tells them that he said he didn't think he would ever love anyone again the way he loved Carly when they were first married. Carly and Jack insist he go talk to her and explain himself. Dante is reluctant, but the three of them take a taxi to the strip club wh

The family all pitch in to help Jack make and bottle his special barbecue sauce for a food fair. The inexperienced bottlers wake up that night to the sound of barbecue sauce explosions coming from the kitchen. Sheldon offers financial aid but Jack is reluctant to take it. Paul, a young man helping the family with the production, asks Carly if she thinks he should ask Nicole out. Carly says yes, not wanting to admit that Nicole might not consider him for a date because he's overweight, an assessment Jack agrees with.

A booby trap set by Jack and Dante catches newspaper-stealing neighbor Mrs. Ross redhanded (or blue-faced, actually) and she promptly sues Jack. Meanwhile, Sheldon has cancelled plans with Sarah one too many times, and she's ready to do something about it. While Jack is seeing one lawyer, she goes to another to try to get Sheldon to disown her and make Jack her legal guardian. Sheldon is furious and thinks Jack is behind it. He comes to the apartment and tries to reconcile with Sarah, asking her to come along to Paris with him and Stephanie, but Sarah refuses. Jack tries to calm Sheldon down and talks to him about what it takes to be a good father. The talk only spooks Sheldon into thinking he'll never make a good dad and he now wants to sign the papers. Carly talks Sarah into travelling to Paris, but Stephanie and Sheldon have already left. Rushing to the airport, Carly boards the plane to talks to Sheldon, who then leaves the plane with her. Meanwhile Sarah has boarded and the plane