Lenny invites Homer and his friends to his apartment to announce that he’s purchased a new plasma-screen HDTV. Everyone is impressed, especially Homer, who vows to spend the rest of his life laying on Lenny’s couch watching television. Three days later Bart and Lisa drop by to check up on him. They too are wowed by Lenny’s system. Several days later Lenny kicks Homer out of the house. When Homer returns home, Marge tells him she entered the family in a contest to win a plasma-screen television. Three weeks later Homer receives a phone call from a contest representative. The family doesn’t win the plasma television, but they do win third prize: a tour of the Fox Network in Los Angeles. The Simpsons travel to California, where a tour guide takes them around the Fox lot on a tram. They bump into actor Dan Castellaneta, and the producer of a wife-swap reality show, who tells Homer that contestants earn about enough money to buy a new plasma television. Elated, Homer convinces Marge to be on show.

The producer introduces the Simpsons to an upscale British family, the Heathbars. Marge will trade places with the mother, Verity. When Verity, the youngest-ever full professor at Yale, mentions she got tenure at twenty-eight, Bart and Homer drop their pants and moon the room, showing off their “tenure.” A short time later the producer introduces Verity’s husband Charles, and seven-year-old son Ben. The producer says that Marge will trade places with Verity for one month, and move into the Heathbar home in Connecticut. As the taping of the show gets underway, Verity tells Homer she chose to do the show because it offered her the best way to humiliate her husband. She also says that Charles hasn’t satisfied her sexually in years. Homer grows uncomfortable. Marge is impressed by Charles, even though he’s little more than a stuffy office manager; and with Ben, who plays the lute. Charles entertains Marge by telling a long, unfunny joke. Marge praises Charles, who turns out to be completely smitten with her.

Homer introduces Verity to the barflies at Moe’s. Moe remarks that he caught an episode of the reality show, the one where Verity points to all the spots where Homer missed the toilet. Marge does some grocery shopping and returns to the Heathbar home, only to find the living room lit by candles and Charles wearing a red kimono. Charles tells Marge they have the house to themselves, and serenades her with a song. Charles then professes his love for Marge, and asks for her to do the same. Marge refuses. She tells Charles she’s in love with Homer. Charles begins sobbing, and collapses on the couch. A short time later Lisa shows up at the house in Connecticut. She tells Marge they’re flying back to Springfield in a Frito Lay Daughter Copter, and points to a nearby helicopter. Charles says he’s coming with them. When the threesome return to the Simpson house, Verity announces that she’s leaving Charles. Charles is appalled to discover that Verity is having a relationship with Marge’s sister, Patty. Homer finds out that the final twist in the show is that Fox doesn’t pay anyone.