Walter and Maude go to Massachusetts for an appliance seller's convention. When their reservations at a upscale hotel are botched, they must share a shabby motel. This is when a squabble ensues when Maude tries to confide in Walter the angst she has over not having any meaning in her life and the troubles she's been having trying to find a job because she's a woman.

Carol walks into a cocktail lounge and catches a glimpse of Walter having drinks in a cozy corner with a woman who once worked for him. When Maude finds out, she immediately jumps to the conclusion that Walter is having an affair and promptly packs up his things and orders him out of the house.

Maude is convinced that her best friend, Vivian has the ""perfect marriage"" so she is completely stunned when Vivian announces plans for a divorce. This leads Maude to analyze her supposed ""perfect marriage"".

After a wild evening of drinking, Maude, Walter and Arthur awake to discover some oddities. First, Maude and Arthur shared a bed, second the guys trashed the living room and third, Walter made an obscene phone call to Maude's mother. Carol suggests that perhaps Walter has a drinking problem but he refuses to face that fact. Maude and Walter later get into a big argument while they are both drunk and Walter slaps her.

After giving Maude a black eye, Walter continues to drink. Later, Arthur sends over a recovering alcoholic to talk some sense into Walter who adamantly refuses help. When Walter discovers Maude got rid of all the alcohol, he goes ballistic and she locks him in the closet. That's when Carol makes an announcement, she's taking Phillip and is moving out

For their 5th wedding anniversary, Maude makes a big mistake in giving Walter an electric organ as a gift. He's driving everyone up the wall with his constant playing. Maude soon confronts him and they end up a huge argument, leading to Walter storming out and crashing his car into a tree.

As part of a publicity tour for a new movie, John Wayne makes a stop in Tuckahoe, to visit Arthur, his number one fan. However, when the ceiling caves in at the Harmons, Arthur talks Maude into hosting the party. Maude decides to have a verbal shootout with the Duke about woman's lib but finds her tongue tied when she actually meets him.

With Florida gone, Maude has finally decided to hire a new housekeeper. She is excited with the fact that the new one, Mrs. Naugatuck is British but quickly the two of them clash over gender roles, as Mrs. Naugatuck insists on calling Walter the master of the house and begins to pamper his every need.

Maude is having a restless night, she can't sleep because she has something very important on her mind and wants to tell Walter about it, but he's too busy worrying about the blizzard outside and his end of the summer sale scheduled for the next day. So she decides to just drop the bomb, her doctor has told her that she should have a hysterectomy.

Someone in Maude's household seems to be having a nighttime visitor.

At a new job, Maude manages three men who find it hard to work for a woman.