Carl hosts Steve's weekend long 21st birthday bash on the ship Queen Mary in Long Beach, where the music group "The Goo Goo Dolls" entertains. Carl then asks Steve a favor: to have a chance with Clare who he has had a crush on. David and Donna grow more intimate while their producer Erik, makes a move on Donna and other women as well. Andrea Zuckerman arrives in town to have fun at Steve's party, and Nat brings Joan along who keeps feeling unwell. Meanwhile, Valerie hires an FBI agent, named Richard Ballen, to find Colin who's in the area trying to get access on a ship to take him to South America. Also, Susan tells Brandon that she has decided to leave town to accept a job offer at a newspaper company in Washington D.C. which makes him wonder if he has a future with Susan after all.

Matt is put into a dilemma when his long-estranged wife, Lauren, suddenly arrives in town from New York after spending years in an insane asylum and wants to make up for lost time while Kelly becomes suspicions of Matt's sudden behavior. Meanwhile, Gina becomes jealous when a former drug addict, named Linda, agrees to sponsor Dylan's recovery. At the same time, Dylan finds trouble on his new community service job at a freeway construction site with the abusive foreman and a struggling co-worker. Also, Steve and Noah declare a war of practical jokes after Noah cheats at strip poker, which apparently takes a serious turn when a man suddenly drops dead and Steve and Donna try to retrieve the corpse from a missing refrigerator. David meets a young woman whom he asks out to the movies only to have her stand him up.

After Kelly kills her rapist, she is arrested by the police who, though they believe her self-defense story, they still want to prosecute her for possessing a stolen gun. Kelly refuses to reveal that Dylan gave her the gun. Meanwhile, David kicks Dylan out of his house after finding Gina and Dylan in bed. Donna throws Gina out of the beach house after hearing Gina bad-mouth Kelly to TV reporters. Gina moves into Dylan's hotel suite at the same hotel where he lived as a teenager. Noah refuses to associate with Donna or anyone near her, while Donna thinks that her involvement with Wayne was a mistake when all he wants to do is have fun as Kelly is going through hell. Steve is perplexed with Janet's behavior after she tells him she loves him and then later says she's not sure the relationship is working.