Lila Simmonds Coolidge passes away just before her 95th birthday...which she happened to share with Nate. This year, Nate's 40th is marked by the news that he'll be a dad, which he doesn't react to as enthusiastically as Brenda had hoped. Claire breaks off with Billy after a final night together because of his wild behavior off medication, while George's apologies to Ruth don't lessen her impatience toward his problems. Rico sleeps with Vanessa when he shows up to remind she forgot to pick their son up, but she ensures it will be the last time. At Nate's unwanted party where his mood is already low after accidentally revealing Brenda's pregnancy and creating more friction, a bird some consider to be an omen and others merely to be an annoyance continues to invade the house. When Nate is insulted for allowing its return by not closing the window it originally entered through, he takes out all his frustration on the bird.

Diabetic Daniel Holzenchenko succumbs to the call of canned peaches...and leaves behind 2 brothers and 2 sisters who seem unable to agree on anything from refreshments to music to be used at his funeral. While trying to mediate them, Nate also has to figure out how to convince Brenda not to tell Maya that she is her stepmother and her real mother Lisa is dead. David and Keith go to an adoption agency picnic where they meet Anthony, and choose to foster and possibly adopt him and his brother, when Mary's news about conception changes to news of an error. Ruth tells her knitting group her patience with George has officially ended, and at their urging convinces him to find an apartment for them and a job for himself - but actually plans to leave him with the apartment. Claire has a worse time leaving Billy, pressured by Margaret as well as him. Julio torments another student so Rico volunteers to go in and explains his anger is actually from his parents' divorce, but Vanessa confronts him about what he says. Nate is advised to make a choice about talking with Maya from an interesting source, and gets a surprising response from Brenda.

Maggie Sibley's friend and fellow Quaker Peter Thomas Burns suffers a heart attack while watching a play, and Nate becomes intrigued about her faith when she brings it up. Brenda's blood tests reveal that her and Nate's child has a higher-than-usual possibility for developing Down's Syndrome or other complications at birth, and the doctor recommends amniocentesis to eliminate these factors. Ruth, feeling a misfit among other women in the sudden free time offered her without George, is displeased to hear that he wants the briefest divorce possible since he's already found another woman, so warns her she'd be marrying a depressed, sick man. Meanwhile, Rico is disgusted that sleeping with Vanessa is brief, to the point, and unenthusiastic, almost like another chore for him to help out with. Claire meets Ted, a lawyer, at work and eventually chooses to try to connect with him. David accidentally learns that Durrell will be performing in a school musical, and, remembering what it was like to have a parent who didn't have time to do it for him, he insists to Keith that they should go see him in it...despite the fact that Durrel's embarrassed enough about it not to want them to. After hearing Maggie admit her handicapped son's life was painful for her, Nate is inclined to agree with the doctor that Brenda should test to ensure there are no problems with her pregnancy, but Brenda is doubtful enough of his support to refuse.