On Mother’s Day morning Homer and the kids compare the gifts they’ve purchased for Marge. Lisa bought her some daisies, while Bart and Homer made her lopsided clay coffee mugs. Lisa tells them they can’t give her the same gift. Later that morning they take a trip to Sprawl-Mart, where they bump into Patty and Selma. Lisa asks them for suggestions for a Mother’s Day present. Selma points to a stack of boxes labeled “Kitchen Carnival.” Bart marvels at the device, which makes carnival food at home. Later Homer gives Marge the Kitchen Carnival. She and the kids have fun making their own cotton candy and caramel apples. That night Homer sneaks into the kitchen and turns on the device. He wonders what would happen if he dipped the cotton candy into the caramel. Before long he creates a giant snack ball some four feet high. When Bart and Lisa awaken the next morning, they shriek at the sight. Homer encourages them to dig in. Homer becomes so obsessed with the snack that he even takes it to bed with him. When ants, birds, cats, and the Flanders children adhere to the massive confection, Marge tells Homer it’s time to get rid of it. Homer drives it to the Springfield dump, where he tosses it into a pile of trash. Moments later a gigantic bear appears and advances on Homer.

An agitated Homer returns home with a shower curtain around his waist. When Marge asks him what happened, Homer makes up a story involving space aliens. A little later the family watches the news. Kent Brockman does a segment called “Kent’s Cowards,” which features the bear chasing a sniveling Homer around the dump. The footage was shot by Grant Connor, a local hunter. At school students tease Bart about Homer’s cowardice. When Homer returns to the power plant, his co-workers laugh when Homer screams at the sight of Mr. Burns’ stuffed bear. Homer returns home, where he reacts with terror when he sees Gummi bears, Winnie the Pooh, and other harmless icons. Grampa discovers Homer cowering in a corner, whimpering. Grampa tells Homer he has to find the bear that humiliated him and “whup him back;” otherwise he’ll be running scared for the rest of his life. That night Homer turns to Ned Flanders for advice, but Ned can’t think of anything in the Bible that pertains to bears. Later Homer gathers his family in the dining room and asks if they’ve lost respect for him. No one can look him in the eye. Homer sadly walks away. He visits Grant Connor, who tells him he tagged the bear’s ear with an electronic tracking device. Grant suggests that Homer have some way of protecting himself if he intends to face the animal again. Homer returns home and creates a metal bear-fighting suit, the “Country Bear Slamboree.” Marge forbids him to fight the bear, but that night Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Bart drive off with the bear-fighting suit. In the process they awaken Marge and Lisa. Homer and his friends drive to the woods, where Homer dons the suit. The electronic tracking device shows no sign of the bear. Hot and sweaty, Homer takes off the suit and takes a bath in a nearby river. Bart then realizes there are no batteries in the tracking device. Suddenly the bear appears and advances on Homer.

Meanwhile Marge and Lisa contact Grant Connor, who uses a tracking device built into his Jeep to track the bear. Suddenly Bart, Lenny, and Carl jump into the road. They tell the others that the bear carried Homer away. Grant promises Marge he’ll find the bear before it kills Homer. Meanwhile, at a cave, the bear grabs its head and moans in pain. Homer unclamps the tag from its ear. Grateful, the bear licks Homer’s hand. Homer and the bear bond, ripping open logs and eating the honey within. A little later, as Homer and the bear walk through tall grass, a gunshot rings out. Homer vows to save his new friend, and hurls the tracking device into a nearby lake, temporarily throwing Connor off the trail. He then finds an area marked “wildlife sanctuary” on the map he’s been carrying with him, but he discovers it’s surrounded by hunters; including Connor. Thinking quickly, Homer places his bear-suit over the bear. The bear ambles through the field and gunfire bounces harmlessly off the plating. The bear makes it to safety.