A plane crash causes the firm to go after the account for the airline involved and drop the smaller airline they have an account with. Peggy pays a visit to her mother and sister, who are now guardians of a child.

Freddy and Ken take a client out to lunch who stirs Roger Sterling's heart.

Don deliberately delays returning an important call from California, because he knows it's bad news about Anna. Instead, he keeps himself occupied by forcing Peggy to miss her birthday dinner to pull an all-nighter with him for a client.

Don is on the outside looking in on the forced indefinite paid leave from his job. While Ted heads back to New York for a few days, Don takes the opportunity to head to Los Angeles in part to meet with a California transformed Pete while he reunites with Megan, who is living full time there while pursuing what looks to be a promising acting career. Back in New York, Peggy avoids Ted at all cost while she learns to deal with the new "Don", Lou Avery, most specifically on the Accutron account for which she is getting consulting help from Freddie Rumsen. On top of that, she is also having to deal with being a landlady to who she believes are overly demanding tenants. Ken feeling overworked leads to Joan taking over his scheduled business meeting with Wayne Barnes, the new Head of Marketing for Butler Footwear. Barnes' news results in Joan taking what she hopes will be seen as decisive and preemptive action in overcoming a potential problem, action which she hopes demonstrates that she deserves to be more than just a glorified secretary. And Roger meets with Margaret on her request, the two who have been somewhat estranged over the last few months. Their individual new approaches to life may result in a friction-free reunion.