Mary has recently given birth to twin daughters, so Annie heads off to Buffalo to help her out. Eric is left to take care of things at home. A difficult issue with the boys' teacher prompts him to pull them out of school without consulting Annie, and an excruciating physical pain in his neck isn't helping matters. Kevin's brother arrives for a visit, but there's only one way they can convince a emotionally unstable Lucy to let him stay with them for a little while.

Eric continues to manage the household in Annie's absence. He begins home-schooling the twins and finds even more stress added to his life when their third grade teacher shows up at the house, eager to start a relationship with him. Meanwhile, Kevin and Lucy start noticing Eric's strange behavior, but their attempts to uncover the truth only make matters worse.