While Andy is away in Raleigh considering a job offer, Barney is left as acting sheriff and dreams of the day he'll have the job. When he ends up causing more trouble than he prevents, he wonders if he really wants the job as much as he thought.

Barney's attempts at getting Otis to stop drinking through psychotherapy only succeed in driving him away to Mount Pilot. When Andy sees how bad Barney feels, he takes him up to Mount Pilot to convince Otis to come back, only to find that Otis prefers their jail over Andy's.

Goober starts to annoy Andy and Barney by hanging around during their dates with Helen and Thelma Lou. They decide to set him up with a girl he likes, only to find they now have twice the trouble.

The pretty daughter of a friend of Aunt Bee's comes to stay with the Taylors and develops a crush on Andy, who tries to be nice for Aunt Bee's sake without getting in trouble with Helen.

Opie goes to the carnival to try and win a present for Andy's birthday but ends up spending all his money on a crooked shooting gallery. When Andy hears about it, he visits the gallery himself to teach the operators a lesson in straight shooting.

Warren is convinced he has e.s.p. and feels that Andy and Helen are in grave danger if they go to the lake. He tries to warn them but they do not take him seriously. He takes it upon himself (with Goober's help) to "protect" them.

Andy has some explaining to do to Helen when photographs of him getting cozy with a famous and attractive Hollywood starlet make it back to Mayberry.

While the Taylors were in Hollywood, Aunt Bee won $4800 worth of prizes on a game show. She is the envy of Mayberry, until she her friends think that she's gloating about her winnings. The IRS comes to call, telling Andy that he'll have to pay over $1100 in taxes for the winnings. Aunt Bee sells most all of the prizes to pay the taxes. Worth noting in this episode is that Howard McNear (Floyd the barber), who had suffered a stroke, has a particularly shaky scene, when he's checking out Bee's new dishwasher.

Warren decides that Otis needs some contructive rehabilitation acitivity-so he has him take up art. Otis works hard on a large mosaic of a cow that he is proud of-and he gives it as a gift to the Taylors. Much to Andy's embarrassment, Otis wants them to hang it up on their living room mantel!