All of Bayview starts panicking when it appears that a nuclear-powered space station is going to plunge through the atmosphere and destroy the town.

The mayor of Bayview somehow manages to lose all of the town's money, so he hires a magician to find it. Though it's obvious the magician is a sham, no one but Pelswick realizes this. Meanwhile, Gram-Gram and Agnes go searching for the missing money on their own, with some help from a mule.

Substitute teacher Gram-Gram spins tales about the Bayview flood of 1921 in order to impress Pelswick's class, little dreaming of the disastrous consequences that will follow.

Basketball fever sweeps Bayview as Pelswick considers trying out for the school basketball team, Sandra and Julie try to organize a girls' team, and Quentin tutors Boyd and his gang so that they can remain eligible to play.

Pelswick enters the Paraquest Games for handicapped athletes, and is surprised to find that Boyd is his chief competitor. Meanwhile, Julie and Sandra try to save a tree.

The Eggert family are forced to scrimp and save when Quentin loses his job; Alcatraz Junior High celebrates its 75th anniversary.

A decidedly flaky therapist forces the students in Pelswick's class to build marionettes in their own self-images as a therapeutic exercise. When Pelswick refuses to include a wheelchair as part of his self-image puppet, he's deemed to be deliberately undermining the therapy, and is suspended until he can put his puppet on a wheelchair.

Pelswick goes on a blind date with a girl who doesn't know about his wheelchair. When he discovers that his date loves dancing, he goes to extreme lengths to keep her from finding out that he's paralyzed from the waist down.

Julie tries to shake everyone out of their apathy by forming a band; Sandra obsesses on the healing powers of yellow boots; Gram-Gram and Agnes go gambling.