The Simpsons and their neighbors hold a rummage sale on Evergreen Terrace. Homer discovers a talent for hawking various sale items for his neighbors and draws large crowds. But his sudden popularity is short-lived; former President George Bush and his wife Barbara purchase a home directly across the street from the Simpson house. Upstaged by the Bush’s arrival, Homer becomes jealous and bitter.

Bart begins making regular trips to the Bush home. Barbara encourages her husband to spend some time with the Simpson boy, but George takes an immediate dislike to him. He grows increasingly flustered with his incessant questions, disrespectful attitude and lack of manners. One day, Bart accidentally engages an outboard motor in the Bush garage, turning George’s typed memoirs into a snowstorm of confetti. At his wits’ end, Bush puts Bart over his knee and spanks him. When Homer learns what happened, he marches to the Bush home and confronts his neighbor. Both men vow to create big trouble for the other.

Homer fulfills his promise by launching bottle rockets at the Bush home. George retaliates by creating a banner featuring crudely rendered drawings of Homer and Bart that reads “Two Bad Neighbors.” Next, Homer and Bart glue a rainbow fright wig onto Bush’s head, which the former president is forced to wear during a meeting of the Elk’s Club. Bush responds by digging up the Simpson lawn with his Wagoneer. The war escalates in a sewer beneath the street, where Homer and Bart unleash a swarm of locusts on the unsuspecting former President. Fed up with the feud, Barbara makes her husband apologize to Homer in front of a visiting Mikhail Gorbachev. Realizing the neighborhood brought out the worst in her husband, Barbara tells Marge they are selling the house.