Homer enters Bart’s bedroom dressed as Lord Evilton from the “Angelica Button” books (similar to the Harry Potter series). Scared, Bart grabs a baseball bat and beats Homer. Lisa tells Bart that she and Homer are driving to a local bookstore to pick up the last book in the series, which goes on sale at midnight. Although he thinks the whole thing is for nerds, Bart agrees to accompany them. At the store, customers snatch up copies when they go on sale. On the drive home Lisa quickly flips through the tome to find out what happens. When she’s done the Simpsons toss their books out of the car. Later the family watches television. Marge gets excited during a commercial for the Chazz Busby Ballet Academy. Marge tells Lisa she always wanted to be a ballerina, but puberty ended her dream. Lisa convinces Marge to audition. Chazz Busby doesn’t think Marge has what it takes to be a ballerina, but he believes that Lisa has natural talent. Meanwhile, Homer shows Bart his secret room where he manufactures beef jerky. Bart is impressed.

Lisa discovers that being a ballerina is hard work. During a break she walks into a patio area, where her fellow ballerinas are smoking cigarettes. Lisa tries to breath in fresh air, but instead inhales smoke. When she returns to rehearsals, Chazz Busby compliments Lisa’s dancing. Lisa wonders how her skills improved so rapidly. One of her fellow ballerinas attributes the change to cigarette smoke. Lisa knows that cigarettes can kill, but that night she realizes all her feminist heroes were smokers. Homer escorts Apu to his secret room, intending to start a beef jerky business, but the meat has disappeared. Before long Homer realizes that a family of raccoons made off with the beef. He decides to confront the animals, but his heart melts when he sees how cute they are. He and Bart decide to go fishing. As Homer passes by the ballet academy, he sees Lisa trying to take a drag off a discarded cigarette. He throws the cigarette on the ground, and stomps on it.

Homer wants to pull Lisa out of the ballet academy, but realizes Marge would be crushed. He tells Lisa she can continue to dance, but insists she avoid secondhand smoke. When Lisa says it’s going to be difficult for her to quit, Homer assigns Bart the task of keeping an eye on her. The ballet company prepares for a performance of Sleeping Beauty. One of the dancers encourages Lisa to inhale some secondhand smoke. Lisa gives in, and inhales deeply. Bart catches her in the act, and reports back to Homer. Homer shows up at the theater with a raccoon. He instructs the animal to steal cigarettes from a dressing room. Once they’ve been retrieved, Homer discards them. During one of the act breaks the ballerinas discover their beloved smokes are missing. Suddenly they become very, very hungry. They rush to the lobby for sweets. Lisa takes the stage and warns the audience about a dangerous, growth-stunting thing that’s marketed to children: ballet. She removes her slippers and hurls them offstage. Thanks to some children’s nicotine patches, Lisa is able to kick the secondhand-smoke habit.