When Jeremy visits his dad's apartment to watch a movie, Martin isn't happy to discover he's had a tattoo of a skull done on his arm. Judith drops by with Jeremy's bag and Martin brings the tattoo to her attention, but she is slightly less vocal in her condemnation than Martin. Judith asks Martin to talk rationally with Jeremy, but Martin decides that punishment is a better response.
It's the Whitestone office party, and Martin is less than thrilled to be there, until he notices a hottie making eyes at him from across the room. He gets to know the woman, Alannah, better during the evening. Afterwards, Martin bumps into Gibby and is surprised when he shows off Alannah as his latest plaything. In the days following, Martin is paranoid that Gibby suspects he and Alannah are carrying on behind his back.
It's summer, and New York is experiencing a chronic heatwave. Martin is sweltering in his apartment due to broken air-conditioning. He seeks out his building's new super, a gorgeous woman named Debra. After fixing the fan, the two of them go all the way in torrid fashion, and all is well until . . .
Martin, Eddie and Judith meet up at a secluded cabin for a reunion with old friends. Martin has ongoing mutual antipathy with Allison, an old writing rival who has since gone onto fame and success as an author. Eddie is anxious at seeing Cara - a woman he slept with once and never called again, although on first meeting she doesn't recognise him except from his TV show.
Andre Williams, a militant black writer of Martin's, bemoans the lack of publicity for his new book ‘Yo! Homeboy', so Martin gets him a slot on Eddie's show. The appearance is a disaster, as Andre accuses Eddie of being ‘the world's whitest black dude'. Shortly thereafter, Eddie makes some changes in his life, trying to increase his 'blackness.'
Martin finds his bar mitzvah bonds in a closet and suddenly has extra cash. Toby encourages him to invest $5,000 in a fledgling business she is setting up offering stock tips over the phone, 555-TIPS. The business goes terribly, until a wrong number mistakes it for an S&M phone-sex chat line and stays on for hours. Seeing where the real money is, Toby employs the services of her family – Gina, Angie – in order to cover the phones.
Martin is disgusted by the quality of the books Gibby is forcing him to edit, and his lack of appreciation. Meanwhile, Eddie is fired from his talk show and his wife Jeanette leaves him on the same day. Eddie begins to reassess his life and Martin encourages him to make a change, proposing they collaborate on creating an up market magazine.
Martin gets a new video camera and inadvertently videotapes children's television celebrity Uncle Bouncy committing a sex act with a prostitute in a public alleyway. Martin opts to caution Bouncy himself about his behavior in person before turning the tape over to him. But, Bouncy's abusive and intransigent attitude convinces him to sell the offending footage to Eddie for broadcast on his show.