Marge returns home from grocery shopping only to realize she purchased the wrong brand of paper towels. The outside of the roll features a manly lumberjack with an ax over his shoulder. Marge is instantly smitten…and even more impressed with the product’s super-absorbency. When Homer returns home, he realizes that Marge is obsessed with the lumberjack, and decides two can play the game. His gaze turns to a jar of Newman’s Own salad dressing, but Paul Newman assures him “it ain’t gonna happen.” Homer then stages a prank. He phones Marge and identifies himself as the Burly Paper Towels male model. He then arranges to have dinner with her. A short time later, Barney shows up at the front door clad in boxer shorts and a flannel shirt. Marge realizes she’s been made a fool of. Angered, she tosses a crown of roast pork to the dog. Homer is horrified. Anxious to patch things up, he takes Marge for a night on the town. The pair dine at a night club, where a hypnotist, Mesmerino, places Homer under his spell. Unfortunately, Homer begins.

When Homer is unable to stop screaming, Lisa concludes her father is struggling with a repressed memory.She suggests the use of a special tea used by Yaqui Indians that sharpens the memory. Homer drinks the tea ,then recounts a camping trip he took with Lenny and Carl in the early 70s. Moe drops by the house, and picks up the story. During the camping trip, the boys went to their favorite swimming hole, where Homer dove headfirst into a quarry filled with very little water. As Homer climbed out of the quarry, he happened upon a drainpipe. While attempting to clear the pipe, Homer dislodged a man’s corpse. Homer then began screaming.

Marge and the others realize that Homer’s trauma is the result of finding the dead body. Homer and his family make their way back to the quarry, hoping to locate any clues relating to the corpse. While searching the area, they encounter Chief Wiggum, who lends his help. When Homer laments that they’ll never find any evidence due to the large amount of water in the quarry, Marge gets an idea. She returns home and grabs an armload of Burly paper towels. She tosses the rolls into the water, and soon after, the quarry is completely dry. Eventually, the family discovers the skeletal remains of the body. The Simpsons and Wiggum make their way into the drainpipe, hoping to find more clues. They discover a ceiling hatch in the pipe and decide to climb through. The portal leads to Mr.Burns’ office. Realizing there is no point in covering up the truth, Burns recounts what happened. Years earlier, Smithers’ father worked at the plant. One day, the reactor core suffered a meltdown. Armed with a fire extinguisher, Smithers’ father entered the core to neutralize the situation. In doing so, he exposed himself to a lethal amount of radiation. Unwilling to admit that the plant had experienced a meltdown, Burns shoved the corpse down the drainage pipe. A short time later, Lisa reads aloud a note Smithers’ father had left behind. In it, Smithers’ father describes how proud he is of his son. Smithers is genuinely touched.