Whit is behind the counter at Whit’s End when Bart Rathbone rushes in, panicked. Bart explains he needs advice on how to make his family stronger. Whit says that’s not an easy thing to do and tries to explain that it’s a lengthy process. Bart cuts him off, though. He needs to know how to make his family stronger by Monday.

Apparently, Bart’s son, Rodney, entered an essay contest sponsored by a statewide magazine. The essay is about family values. The winner and his family will receive the honorable title “Family of the Year.” Rodney’s essay was picked as one of the finalists! The judges are coming to Odyssey to talk with the Rathbones.

The only problem is, the Rathbones don’t know how to be a family, at least not how the magazine views a family to be. That’s why Bart needs Whit’s help. Whit again tries to explain that it takes more than just a few days to make a family strong. But Bart begs so hard, Whit finally directs him to several books on the subject. Bart tries to implement some of the suggestions in the book, but it’s impossible to change the Rathbones. So, in typical Rathbone style, they decide that the only way they can win the contest is by making the other finalist, the Johnson family, lose.

As generally happens with the Rathbones’ schemes, everything backfires just when they think they’ve reached success. The contest judges arrive, and everyone learns that, in his essay, Rodney wrote that Bart was a doctor, and Doris was a trial lawyer! While the rest of us pick up a lesson about real family values, the Rathbones carry on as always.