The Gang plans to go to Magic Mountain for Senior Ditch Day but plans change for Brandon, Dylan, and Steve when a Burt Reynolds fan club eats at The Peach Pit when Nat is sick. Everyone else heads to Magic Mountain.

After mistaking a woman at a rural filling station for his former girlfriend Emily Valentine, Brandon decides to visit Emily's home in Marin County north of San Francisco. He learns that the Valentines have moved to Greece, but runs into Emily by chance on a cable car in San Francisco. They rekindle their romance and decide to spend Thanksgiving together, but Emily does not reveal that she must move away in a week. Back in Los Angeles, the KEG frat house and Alpha sorority serve Thanksgiving dinner at a halfway house, and John Sears tries to take advantage of a 15-year-old girl. Steve intervenes and has the fraternity president distract John. Meanwhile, Dylan declines Kelly's Thanksgiving invitation because he plans to go surfing, but later agrees to dine with the Walshes. When Kelly comes over with her family, she snaps at Dylan and makes a scene. Elsewhere, Andrea is hesitant to attend a Thanksgiving soirée at the home of Dan's parents. Jesse, the bartender from the Walshes' anniversary party, is working Dan's parents' party; he asks Andrea out, and she willingly gives him her address.

Emily has been accepted to the prestigious Cousteau Institute in France, but does not want to attend because she and Brandon are in love. Brandon observes her passion for marine biology and encourages her to pursue her dream. Brenda balks when she is asked to appear nude in an experimental campus play. The frat and sorority pledges must endure a series of humiliating experiences during "Hell Week." The upperclassmen order Steve to steal a prize autographed baseball from Professor Randall for a scavenger hunt, but he gets caught. Andrea breaks up with Dan and begins dating Jesse. She learns that he is a UCLA law student who attended undergraduate courses at Yale.