Emily refuses to accept the fact that Brandon no longer wants to see her. She slashes her own tires and pretends that her parents are out of town so that Brandon will invite her to stay over. She sneaks into his bedroom and tries to seduce him. After he makes it clear that he is not interested, she begins to stalk and harass him by making crank phone calls. Andrea also discovers that Emily is the person who has been sending menacing letters to the school paper. Eventually, Emily shows up at Brandon's house and douses the gang's homecoming float with gasoline. Brenda and Dylan find her sitting on the float with a lighter, but Brenda is able to calm her down. Emily agrees to seek help. Meanwhile, Brenda and Dylan attend cultural events because she fears they spend too much time making out.

Steve is bothered by the appearance of his old nemesis, Chuck Wilson, the former child actor who starred in the TV series Hartley House with Steve's mother, Samantha. Samantha is anxious to appear in a reunion TV show that will only happen if Chuckie will sign the contract. When Chuckie and Steve get in a fist fight at school Chuckie uses this fact to blackmail Steve into taking the fall and excepting suspension. Things get even more tense when Chuckie reveals that he knew of Steve's adoption even before Steve did. Meanwhile, Donna finally agrees to go to the annual winter dance with David, regardless of the teasing she gets from her friends for dating the geeky sophomore.

Andrea fights with the school board to lead a campaign to have condoms distributed at West Beverly. But not all of the gang and their parents are happy about it since Donna's uptight, influential, and fiercely conservative mother, Felice, is opposed to any sex education in schools and has the PTA rally around her for her own self-serving support. Meanwhile, Brenda writes a term paper about her experiences with her pregnancy scare, which upsets Dylan who feels his privacy should be kept private. Also, David wants to plan a special evening with Donna.