Just when Carrie is almost ready to leave for Paris for good, Mr. Big shows up in his limousine - yet she walks away from him for her last dinner with the girls, where Charlotte cries and Miranda makes up. Samantha has her personal input, from nature and experience, concerning a cancer benefit. Once in Paris, Carrie loves the city, but doesn't love sharing Petrovsky's love with his bratty daughter Chloé and his time with his obligations as busy artist. After a disastrous day shopping, her confidence is down like her credit card limit and she loses her "Carrie" necklace. Carrie calls Miranda, homesick for New York and thinking about Big, who turns to the girls there.

Carrie has lunch with Petrovsky's ex Juliette B. who tells her he always gives priority to his art above his partner- she finds that true and has a generally bad time. Charlotte prepares with Anthony to receive her promised adoption baby's birth parents, but those changed their mind; ultimately she and Harry get another baby girl from China. Steve's ma Mary suffers memory loss after a mild stroke, and Miranda offers to take her in, which their maid Magda calls love. Samantha finally admits that Smith means enough to her, unlike any other man, to be jealous. Mr. Big has finally realized that he cannot be happy without Carrie and sets out to bring her back to New York, just when she was considering breaking up with the Russian anyhow.