It's Christmas time at Cage and Fish, and Elaine is preparing for the office party and John is trying to use the mistletoe to his advantage in trying to make a move on Nelle. Ally is happy to see the whimsical side in Billy again when they defend a man who was fired for seeing a unicorn. Meanwhile, Renee is struggling to follow common sense when she sees her old boyfriend, Matt, again.

When Ally is visiting Greg in the hospital, she meets a boy dying of leukemia who wants to sue God. But Ling shows up, and then the gang at Cage & Fish learn something pretty surprising about her. Richard and John are up to their usual antics in court against Renee when they're defending a man who has been accused of attempted murder.

Ally's puritanical classmate, Kimmy, is back, this time claiming she was fired for being a prude and she needs Ally and John to defend her. But in court they are up against Larry. Ally and Larry are about to go on their third date, so Ally thinks she needs to be coached on how to kiss, and when the date doesn't go as planned she's ready to throw it all away. After seeing Ling use John as a kissing test dummy for Ally, Richard tries to find his own sexual persona.

John and Richard get into a squabble over Richard borrowing John's baseball glove without asking, since they insist they are 35 year-old men and not little boys, Melanie suggests they go to couple's counseling. In defending his gender-biased client, Jackson portrays all the women in the court room as sexual objects. That trick just might lose him to Ling but win over Renee. Ally plays match-maker to Elaine and Mark when he gets jealous over Elaine's attraction to Jackson.

Ally has Glenn all hot and bothered on the dance floor, but then Glenn has Jenny all hot and bothered while singing Elvis Presley on her birthday. They're on a double date that is more awkward than imagined. John is back, but he's upset that Richard has violated his hole. Richard has become a trial lawyer, or a litigator, either way he's off to court, or to meet the client. This is the type of confusion that John's disappearance has caused in the office.

John decides to leave the firm as a named partner and work part-time. Fish makes Ally partner. Nelle is upset. Ally reviews the books and discovers that Richard has been paying the employees out of his own pocket. Richard agrees to Ally's terms of working no later than 5:00pm, no weekends, and missing some days entirely. Ally tells Richard they need to let some people go. The realities of motherhood collide with Ally's fantasy of what motherhood is about. The show starts with Ally squeezing orange juice and milking a cow. Ally then fights with Maddie because Maddie doesn't want to go to school. Maddie tests Ally in several other ways. Ally over-involves herself by attending Maddie's class. Victor steps in and helps clear things up. Maddie has a bad day at school and Ally gives her bad advice for getting even. Victor offers to watch Maddie after school while Ally is at work. Ally comes home to a home-cooked meal made by Victor. Corretta defends Kelly Bridgeman, a junior attorney who says she was fired because she has AIDS. She has become symptomatic and the doctors give her two years. Owen Cobb, one of the senior partners, fired her because she's dying, and because the firm lost two lawyers on the first plane that hit the Twin Towers. It's revealed that his son died from AIDS a year before. Raymond defends the employer, but loses.

In her first duty as senior partner at Fish, Cage & McBeal, Ally has to fire someone. It goes even worse than she expected when Jenny takes it personally and Glenn takes the stand that if she goes, he goes. Nelle does not get fired but Ally makes her sing at the bar and her plan of deception backfires once Richard hires Claire Otoms as a secretary. At home, Ally has to deal with Maddie's first sleepover and leans on Victor for support.