This year the town's charity Bachelor Auction host will be -- Marin Frist! Meanwhile the relation between Patrick and Annie is ready to go to the next step, meeting Patrick overprotective mother, and another relationship gets more complicated - that of Ben and Theresa.

Marin tries to help Patrick and Buzz build their relationship, but things go haywire when Celia reveals they are actually related to one another. Marin and Annie need to unwind and go to a beauty salon. Sara begins to feel nervous about taking her EMS exam as she thinks about the future. Marin and Jack head out in search of friends who have been trapped by an avalanche caused by minor earthquake tremors.

After Jane leaks an excerpt from Marin's new book on men to The New Yorker magazine, Marin is forced to defend her career to Jack. Elmo receives a special guest singer-songwriter Jewel, whose car has broken down. She runs into her former bandmate, Theresa, in the Chieftain. Meanwhile, Celia and Patrick's new stepmother, Mai, face each other in an alpha showdown for the role of "top mom."

While Jack is waiting for Marin to return from New York, he receives an unexpected visitor who has arrived in Elmo with a secret. In the meantime, the relationship between Annie and Patrick hasn't gotten better after he neglected her at Thanksgiving dinner. Theresa and Ben ponder their future, Jane and Sam ("Plow Guy") spend a romantic time together in New York.While everyone is busy with their own lives, Buzz faces a medical crisis.