Eric suspects Lucy's ex-boyfriend Jimmy Moon is involved with drugs. Eric and Annie and the rest of the Camden family forbid Lucy to neither see nor speak to him anymore. Lucy does not listen to them and she gets a lot more than what she bargained for when trying to help Jimmy. Meanwhile, Ruthie tries to keep Matt and his new girlfriend Shana apart as she avoids telling Matt that Shana has been calling the house. Lastly, Simon tries out for the baseball team and uses Mary as a good reference, even though he stinks.

Eric defends a custodian named Rudy from Simon's school who claims to be hearing messages from God and is forced into early retirement through the school board. Annie wants to cut loose for the evening, and does so with other fellow mothers. Ruthie encounters a chimp living in the Camden's tree in the backyard, but nobody in her family believes her when she tells them about it. Mary stays up babysitting for the twins when the parent's are out, and is ditched by Lucy.

With Annie and Lucy adding a new bathroom, and the need for a new car, Eric is depending on his built-in annual raise from the church board. However, when the church deacons gets the wrong impression about the Camden's financial situation, they reject his annual raise. It's up to Ruthie to save the day when she realizes what is going on and to convince them to change their minds about their plan. Meanwhile, a young hospital patient (Josh Evans, ""Passions"") offers Matt some career advice. Also, Simon attempts to entertain a classmate who has a crush on him.

Eric and Annie reluctantly allow Mary to go out with Robbie, on the condition that they double date with his younger brother Rick (guest-star, Lance Bass, ""N'SYNC"") with Lucy. Meanwhile, Simon and Nigel buy several packs of cigarettes for a class project to prove how easy it is for children to buy tobacco. Also, Ruthie works out her own secretive science project and John invites some female neighbors over for dinner to take Matt's mind off of Shana.