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Mary Richards returns to her hometown for a high school class reunion and Rhoda Morgenstern goes along in the hope of finding an eligible bachelor among Mary’s ex-classmates. The reunion gets off to a dismal start when Estelle, the class president, needles Mary about being unmarried. The situation is further complicated when Howard Arnell, Mary’s un-favorite ex-boyfriend, arrives on the scene.

When a fire breaks out in Rhoda Morgenstern’s apartment and she loses all her possessions, her friend Mary Richards insists that Rhoda move in with her for a few days. Unfortunately, Mary’s apartment seems to get smaller and the friendship thinner as the days drag by. The difference in Rhoda’s and Mary’s living habits become painfully apparent when Mary can’t sleep because Rhoda’s watching the late movie on television and doesn’t clean up the kitchen after she has used it to cook. Their longtime friendship seems doomed – until Rhoda gets a date with one of the firemen who tried to save her apartment.

The notoriously tight-fisted Ted splurges on expensive gifts for Mary, Lou, and Murray with his income tax refund, only to discover that he is being audited.

Mary Richards meets architect Matt Bryan when he comes to sketch her apartment building. After several dates, the two appear to be on the verge of becoming serious, but Mary notices that Matt avoids discussing the possibility of marriage. She is surprised one day when a young man shows up at her office and introduces himself as Matt Jr. She knows that Matt has been married and divorced and had a son, but she was expecting a nine-year-old boy, not a 24-year-old man. Matt Jr. takes Mary to lunch and tells her not to worry if his father seems ill at ease, because he always does when he becomes serious about a girl. Later, Matt Sr. tells Mary he suspects his son has told her of his fear of a second failure in marriage. Nevertheless, he proposes to her.

Tensions mount and morale drops when a young consultant, hired by Lou Grant to boost the ratings, begins usurping Mary’s responsibilities and ordering changes in Ted’s on-the-air delivery and Murray’s copy.

Mary Richards agrees to baby-sit with Bess Lindstrom for a weekend but gets a phone call from a former boyfriend who says he’ll be in town for only one night. Mary calls several agencies, but no sitter is available. Rhoda Morgenstern can’t help because she already has a date. Mary finally calls her television newsroom boss, Lou Grant, to ask if he knows of anyone and, to her surprise, he volunteers for the job because his television set is broken and he wants to watch a big fight. Lou, however, finds that baby-sitting is a little more complicated than he first thought.

When the husband of Mary Richards’ next door neighbor Phyllis comes down with the chicken pox, Phyllis besieges Mary to allow their daughter Bess to stay with her until her father recovers. Several problems arise later to complicate matters between Mary and Bess when it turns out that Phyllis has always raised Bess according to the latest “How To Raise Your Child” psychology book, and Bess has been accustomed to an unlimited amount of freedom and self-expression. The child, however, soon admits that she would prefer a parent who exercises authority. Mary and little Bess become close friends, and when it is learned that her father does not have chicken pox, Bess does not want to return home.

Mary is nominated for an award for a show she produced, but from there on her luck seems to snowball downhill from bad to worse. She starts making mistakes at work, spills coffee on a new sweater, slips and sprains her ankle, has her best dress ruined by the cleaners and ends up attending the awards dinner with Ted Baxter after her date cancels out. She is announced the winner as producer of the best public affairs program, and with embarrassed apologies accepts the award limping on one foot, wearing a borrowed ill-fitting dress, sporting an unkempt hairdo, a false eyelash ornamenting her cheek and tears welling in her eyes.