After being bitten by the family cat, Dimity Ann, John takes her away and leaves her in a new housing developement. Lydia believes the cat ran away because of a dislike for her, while Ellen's suspicions come nearer the truth. John fantasizes about being on trial before a real judge for his ""crime.""

The Monroes have a new maid who for some reason has a phobia about modern appliances, and Ellen tells John to be kind to her and keep up appearances while she's away. But the maid finds John, who is working in the attic, as distracting as the appliances.

When both Ellen and Lydia's teacher Miss Skidmore agree that John's cartoons are causing his daughter acute embarrassment, John goes to the school and ends up in the office of the principal, who John imagines as a Nazi out of a World War II melodrama.

When Ellen and Lydia go on an overnight trip, leaving John home alone, he finds himself interrupted in his work by a pair of movers and goes into a fantasy concerning him and his beautiful new neighbor.

John suggests The Manhattanite use marriage as the theme of its anniversary issue, and he has his own ideas on the subject. After he elaborates on his thoughts on marriage, including the tendency of wives to tardiness, he ends up being late for a lunch date with Ellen.

John once again has to deal with rejection, not only by Greeley, who can't find the humor in one of John's cartoons, but by the young editor of Lydia's sixth-grade school newspaper. John is upset by this double rejection, but his attempts to plead his case don't go the way he wants.