As Homer drives Bart and Milhouse to school, he spots the KBBL Victory Van, which is on the lookout for drivers sporting the KBBL Party Penguin. Homer stops the car and shoos the boys out the door. As they make their way through the streets, the boys happen upon Chief Wiggum’s cruiser, which is parked outside a donut shop. The boys slip inside the car, and when a police dog suddenly lunges at them, the car is accidentally put in gear, sending it rolling down a hill. The cruiser crashes through a picnic area and eventually comes to a halt. Bart and Milhouse are brought to juvenile court, where Judge Snyder lets Milhouse off easy. When Bart approaches the judge’s bench, he expects the same treatment. But the judge suddenly announces that he is leaving on vacation, and he is replaced by Judge Constance Harm, a mean,no-nonsense jurist. When Harm realizes Homer abandoned Bart to chase the KBBL van, she rules that the pair should be tethered together.

Bart and Homer have a difficult time adjusting to being tethered together, especially when Homer is forced to accompany Bart to school. Later, when Homer goes to Moe’s bar for a drink, the tethered Bart is forced to wait outside. And when Bart expresses the need to use the bathroom, Marge shoves a large bottle into the boy’s hands. That night, an amorous Homer discovers he cannot make love to Marge because of Bart’s presence. Tired of the constant fighting between the pair, Marge grabs a butcher’s knife and cuts the tether in half. It turns out that the tether contains fiber optics. An image of Judge Harm’s face appears on the severed end. Later, Homer and Marge appear before Harm, who declares them both bad parents and sentences them to wear old-fashioned wooden stocks.

As Homer and Marge adjust to their punishment, Lisa asks Bart when he is going to start taking responsibility for his actions. But Bart pays her no attention. Later, Homer and Marge are forced to stand on a street corner and bend over, allowing passing motorists to smack them on the posterior. That night, when Marge tells Homer she’ll never bend to the judge’s wishes and admit she’s a bad mother, Homer decides it’s time to stand up to Harm. Using the family car, Homer figures out a way to remove the stocks. Later, he and Marge don black cat burglar-style coveralls and make their way to the judge’s home…which turns out to be a houseboat. The pair erect a large banner which reads “Big Meanie” on the boat. But a barking seal alerts Harm to their presence. When Harm advances on Homer and Marge’s hiding place, Homer hurls a large cinder block at her. At the last minute, Marge grabs his arm. The cinder block sails past the judge and knocks a hole in the boat, sinking it. In court, Bart approaches Judge Harm and tells her that any other parents would have given up on him long ago, and asks instead that he be punished instead. Harm sentences Bart to five years in juvenile hall, but before she can bang the gavel, making it official, Snyder returns from his vacation and retakes the bench, nullifying her decision. Snyder then dismisses the case, much to the family’s relief.