Lisa grows suspicious when Mr. Burns throws a party for his employees at the Springfield Air and Space Museum. After everyone enjoys a tour of the facility and has plenty to eat and drink, Burns announces that his company’s employee prescription drug program has been terminated. Burns blames the move on rising health care costs. When the employees revolt, Mr. Burns climbs aboard an old-timey flying machine, and with Smithers pedaling the contraption, the two get away from the closing mob.

At home Marge adds up some figures on a pad and realizes that without the prescription drug program, the family’s monthly prescription bill comes to $900. Homer says he’ll find a second job that pays well and provides full health benefits. Meanwhile, on the evening news, Kent Brockman announces that other Springfield companies are following the power plant’s lead and canceling their prescription drug plans. Lisa thinks the entire town will go crazy if people stop getting their medicine. Later Marge and Lisa sneak into a drug manufacturing plant, where they corner a drug industry spokesman. Lisa points out that medication isn’t nearly as expensive in other countries. The spokesman has Marge and Lisa watch a drug industry video, and then runs out of the room. Meanwhile, at the nursing home, Grampa and his elderly friends realize they won’t be getting their medication. When Marge and Lisa return home, they tell Homer and Bart that the drug company won’t help them. Marge realizes things have gone from bad to worse when Milhouse begins to develop a dual personality. Suddenly the front door bursts open. Grampa strides into the house and announces that he has a solution to end the crisis: smuggling drugs from Canada into the United States. Soon after, Grampa and Homer cross the Canadian border and make their way to a Canadian VFW-style building, where an elderly man, Johnny Bland, sets Grampa and Homer up with some fake Canadian health care cards. The pair load up the car with drugs and travel back to the United States, where they start doling out pills. Flanders and Apu convince Homer and Grampa to take them along on their next trip to Canada. On the return trip Apu drinks too much hot coffee, and Flanders wraps a wet towel around his head. Several Canadian Mounties mistake the towel for a turban. Homer assures the Mounties that he and his friends are innocent tourists, but when he opens the car door, pills pour out.

Homer, Grampa, Flanders, and Apu are arrested and placed in a Canadian jail. Later they’re kicked out of the country and told never to return. Meanwhile Mr. Burns watches as Smithers collapses on the floor, his thyroid gland swollen enormously. Smithers says he can’t afford his medication. Burns vows to bring Smithers back to health. He approaches Grampa and Homer with a plan: they will fly into Canada and smuggle drugs out by air. Homer wonders if it wouldn’t be easier just to restore the employee drug program, but Burns says he’s already made up his mind. The threesome fly to Canada and load up the plane with drugs. During the flight back to the United States, the plane runs into a storm. Using a parachute, Burns jumps out of the airplane. Moments later the plane crash-lands near Springfield Town Square, where Wiggum is snoozing in his car. Wiggum begins to arrest Grandpa, but the townspeople, who are in dire need of the medication, talk him out of it. Meanwhile Burns makes his way to his mansion, where he revives Smithers.