Bob becomes the ""oldest permanent psychologist in Chicago"" when the ceiling in his office collapses and he has to set up shop wherever he can find the space.
Emily agrees to help operate a children's summer camp and tries to persuade Bob to be one of the counselors.
Bob breaks a long-standing rule against treating friends when he agrees to counsel Emily's chum, whose marriage to a muscular gym teacher seems to be breaking up.
Emily redecorates the apartment in antiques. Bob finds her choice of furniture uncomfortable, unappealing, and hazardous to his health.
With his confidence fading as fast as his list of patients, Bob decides to follow Emily's advice and see a psychiatrist about his problem.
Bob and Jerry have a falling-out when Jerry demands that Bob lend him money for a new motorcycle.
Emily is more than a little curious about Bob's reluctance to talk about a girl he used to date. Then Howard inadvertently spills the beans.
Before he has a chance to say no, Bob finds himself running for the chairman of the local school board against an incumbent who hasn't attended a board meeting for six months.
Ellen's ex-fiancee, John Tobin—a tall, handsome egomaniac in suede and leather—arrives in Chicago to win Ellen back. The situation plays havoc with Howard's basic insecurities.
Facing the depressing prospect of returning home to Iowa to spend the holidays with her domineering parents, Carol brings her troubles to Bob's apartment. There she spends Christmas Eve pouring out the disasters of her childhood.
Bob thinks his chances of winning a doctor's tennis tournament are pretty good until he learns that his doubles partner will be Emily.
After renewing an acquaintance with the beautiful and free-spirited Courtney Simpson, Jerry decides to give up his dental practice: he wants to follow his dreams of romance and adventure by taking Miss Simpson to Tahiti.
Bob forms an all-women consciousness-raising group. He gets kicked out after Emily joins and inadvertently points out some of the unliberated areas in their own marriage.
Emily's plans for a wonderful turkey dinner go downhill when Bob's mother and Emily's father begin insulting one another the night before Thanksgiving.
Carol's announcement that she's going to marry Don Fesler—an unpublished poet with bad feet—brings negative reactions from her friends.
Bob's first literary venture turns out to be less than triumphant. His embarrassment makes him reluctant to join a convention of psychologists on a flight to Hawaii, especially when he finds out that Howard is the navigator.
Having preached honesty in relationships to his patients, Bob decides to follow his own advice. Immediately he offends two dinner guests and starts an argument with Emily.
Bob's office routine becomes a wreck when Jerry hires a temporary receptionist. She's a very nice but very vague woman who can't even get Bob's name straight.
Bob gives up most of his private practice to become the staff psychologist with a major insurance company. He soon learns that it's possible for a man in the corporate world to do his job too well.
As Howard prepares to introduce Howie to Ellen, he tries to remold Ellen into an image the boy will like.
For the sake of their marriage—as well as Emily's Master's Degree and Bob's heavy work schedule—the Hartleys decide that it would be best if they took up separate residences.
Dr Newman removed a wart from Bob's neck and charged him. Bob tells Jerry he should have done it for free since Bob had helped him with his marriage. Jerry agrees and sets up a plan where all the doctors treat each other for free.
Bob takes two of his therapy groups to a rustic retreat for a marathon session that never progresses further than everyone's complaints about the primitive conditions of their accommodations.
Bob is faced with the possibility that his younger sister, Ellen, may move in with Howard, her boyfriend.
