Lisa notices media satellite trucks rolling down the street. Soon after, newsman Kent Brockman tells viewers that Mayor Joe Quimby was named in a paternity suit by twenty-seven different women. Marge reacts when Chloe Talbot, a classmate from high school, appears on television. Chloe is now a news anchor for Global Network News. Later, as Marge and Lisa carry groceries home, they walk by Springfield Courthouse. Chloe, who’s standing outside the courthouse along with swarms of reporters covering the Quimby story, calls out to Marge. Chloe and Lisa hit it off almost immediately. This annoys Marge, who clearly feels inferior to the highly accomplished and worldly Chloe, but she nonetheless invites her to the house for dinner. Later Chloe dines with the Simpsons. Unfortunately the most interesting thing in Marge’s life is discovering why the family dog scoots around on his rear end all day. Everyone’s attention is drawn to Chloe when her special report about the South Pole airs on television.

Lisa grows even more enamored of Chloe’s life and all the fascinating places she’s been. Later Marge recounts how she and Chloe were both stars in the world of high-school journalism. Chloe dated Barney, but the moment he proposed, Chloe left town. Marge says she would have followed Chloe, but her plans changed when she gave birth to Bart. Lisa gets an A-plus for a school report on the Supreme Court. She credits Chloe for giving her access to exclusive footage of the justices deliberating a case. Later Lisa and Chloe have dinner at the Springfield Press Club, where they’re joined by a host of local newsmen and famous journalists, including Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw. When Chloe brings Lisa home, she offers to bring Lisa to a U.N. Women’s Conference the following day. Unfortunately Marge is glaring at the pair from the front lawn. She chastises Chloe for showing Lisa “a life of fun and possibility.” Marge and Chloe get into a brawl, and they end up wrestling on the lawn.

Marge tends to her black eye after the fight ends. She tells Lisa she got into the fight with Chloe because she had some wine. When Lisa asks for permission to attend the U.N. Conference, Marge still turns her down. Lisa decides it’s time to disobey her mother. She places a wig head in her bed so Marge doesn’t know she’s missing. Then Lisa stows away in Chloe’s suitcase, but a last-minute phone call from a producer changes Chloe’s itinerary. Instead of covering the U.N. Conference, Chloe is sent to Mount Springfield, which is going to erupt at any moment. Later, when Lisa emerges from Chloe’s suitcase, she sees flowing lava. A river of molten rock cuts off Chloe and Lisa’s escape route. Marge sees Chloe and Lisa on television and decides she’s had enough. After plowing through a police barricade, Marge runs across hot lava, grabs Lisa, and hurries her to safety. Moments before the tree Chloe is clinging to descends into the lava, a helicopter swoops down and flies her to safety. It turns out Barney is piloting the helicopter. Barney tries to rekindle their old relationship, but Chloe nixes the idea. Later Marge looks at Bart, Lisa, and Maggie and tells them she made the right choice in life.