Paris wreaks her revenge after Tristan lies about going to a concert with Rory; Rachel leaves Stars Hollow after she becomes convinced that despite his protests, Luke is in love with Lorelai; Rory's defense of the Stars Hollow troubadour during a town meeting brings her back together with Dean, enabling her to finally say, and mean, the words that he's been longing to hear; Luke and Max meet and engage in a little not-so-friendly rivalry as Max begins to suspect, despite her protests, that Lorelai and Luke were once an item; Max proposes to Lorelai with a thousand yellow daisies.

A blizzard prevents a group from attending the historical dinner that Sookie has painstakingly prepared at their request, so she and Lorelai decide to invite all their friends in Stars Hollow to enjoy the feast at the Inn. At Rory's urging, Lorelai also invites Richard and Emily, in an attempt to boost Richard's spirits. During dinner, Emily is hurt and angered when Richard reveals that he has quit his job without consulting her. Jess tries to get between Rory and Dean when Dean is distracted by his little sister.

Lorelai's grandmother arrives in Hartford unexpectedly on Richard's birthday and announces that she's moving back, throwing Emily into a tizzy until she follows Lorelai's advice on how to manage her mother-in-law; Rory declares war on Francie after she pulls a runaround on Paris with the Student Council; Paris finds herself in love after spending Christmas vacation with Jamie's family; after Rory and Dean bump into each other a few times, they decide to be friends again; Jess initially declines Rory's offer to attend the Stars Hollow High Winter Carnival, but changes his mind after they run into Dean and his sister Clara, who invites Rory to join them; Jess gets Dean alone at the carnival and lets him know that he's wise to his plans to get Rory back.

Lorelai confesses that part of the charm of breakfast by Luke is breakfast at Luke's; Rory is less than thrilled to discover that the common room in her suite has been overtaken by a huge antique printing press Paris inherited from Asher; Lorelai and Sookie head up Jackson's campaign committee when he decides to run against Taylor for town selectman to put an end to the grocer's petty tyranny over Stars Hollow, but Lorelai has second thoughts when she sees how Jackson's projected landslide victory is affecting Taylor; Rory and Dean have difficulty finding a comfortable place to be alone, compounded by Dean's having to share a car with Lindsay and his reluctance to make his relationship with Rory public; Lane confesses her true feelings to Zack; after all the votes have been counted, Jackson isn't quite certain he wants the job, and Taylor vows not to go away quietly.