Jean is not yet dressed for work - she's on her way downstairs. Judith is up early because she's in a rush to go somewhere - she's eating on the run. The doorbell rings. Judith opens the door, surprised to see a band. "Mom, there's a band to see you." Jean thinks Judy's joking with her at such an early hour and is stunned to see that there actually is a band standing outside her front door. She looks at Judy, who merely grins and walks away. The lead singer, wearing an outfit that would gain him entry in a barbershop quartet competition, confirms that she is indeed Ms. Pargetter and then begins the count for the band to play. As they finish what was intended to be song number one, Alistair approaches.
"What in God's name are you doing?" she wants to know. Nothing fazes him. She tells him to "clear off" and shuts the door. He blows her a kiss. She enters the living room and swears to Judith she's never been more embarrassed, particularly because she's still in her bathrobe. Judith thinks it's pretty funny and observes that Alistair doesn't do anything by halves. Jean can still hear them singing "On the Street Where You Live" from inside her house. She walks over towards the door and hollers "Shut Up."
Alistair meets Lionel in the hotel lounge. "Hi Li." He's happy and upbeat -- it's a "brilliant" morning. He's there to touch base. Lionel fears he needs an interpreter. He looks deeply into Lionel's eyes and says "How are you?" Asking how someone is -- that's touching base, according to Alistair. Lionel starts to turn cranky again. "I'm very well," he says, "goodbye." He's annoyed because he has no idea what Alistair is talking about. "Oh, Li," says Alistair. Lionel asks him to stop calling him "Li." to which he answers "Sorry, Mate." Lionel reassures him that he's fine and Alistair says "Monster" another word which seems to be interchangeable with "brilliant". This seems to be all Alistair needs to know and he excuses himself because he has to "collect his musicians from the restaurant." He starts to walk away.
Lionel has a quizzical look on his face and asks over his shoulder why Alistair always says things that he has to ask questions about. Alistair walks back as though he hadn't just said something that would strike another person as odd and says "what things?" Easily explained, the musicians are having breakfast at the hotel. Alistair tells him that he had them at Jean's house at 8 a.m. He explains that he hired them to serenade her and "further my cause." Lionel figures Jean must have been overjoyed. Alistair is baffled. He doesn't understand why they aren't in a two-horse race with Jean as the winning post. Lionel tells him he'd "go lame." Alistair figures that perhaps Lionel is just waiting for the right moment to make his move. He walks away saying See ya "Li", er "mate", then thinks about it and settles on "Champ." At least he's trying. Lionel doesn't like that choice any better.
As he leaves, he crosses paths with Judith, stops her, looks her up and down and says "Nice, very nice." She walks over to him, lifts his pants leg and makes a snide comment. She walks over to Lionel, who was expecting to see Sandy. She's there to help him with his revisions. He looked a bit disappointed, probably because he's not used to change and he's aware that Sandy is very good at what she does. Judith explains that Sandy's off sick. She crosses her legs and, once again, is very transparent. His eyes widen.
But Sandy is not sick. In fact, she's in the office doing any number of things which establish how very efficient she is. Jean comes in and after hearing all she's done, tells her she's "going places." Jean expected that Sandy would be at the hotel helping Lionel. When Sandy tells her that Judith went instead, Jean is not totally surprised. Now she knows why Judith left so early that morning. They both realize that Judith has a crush on Lionel. If Lionel marries Judith, she will be Jean's mother-in-law. She's disconcerted. Sandy points out that she doesn't want Lionel anyway -- she has Alistair. Jean tells her if she keeps on this way the only place she'll be going is out the door and onto the dole queue.
While Judith and Lionel are working, he suddenly gets a cramp. She jumps up and starts to massage his leg. Moments later the woman from room service arrives with the coffee. She's embarrassed, puts down the tray and then says "there is a lock on the door, you know." Judy remembers that Lionel also got a cramp the first time they met -- the time he tried to seduce her. He said that was before he knew she was Jean's daughter. She wanted to know what he would have done had she not been Jean's daughter. He did not wish to persist with that topic of conversation. He was very uncomfortable with her kneeling at his feet and asked her to get up, which she did.
She pours him some coffee and starts talking about Alistair who she described as young -- too young for her -- and clumsy. Lionel thought she liked Alistair. She offered him a biscuit and sat on top of the table in front of him and gave Lionel another look at those legs of hers. Lionel's eyes again widen.
Jean is in her office. We hear a scream. Sandy rushes in and slams the door behind her. She explains that there is a gorilla in the outer office. At first she doesn't believe her, but Sandy explains that it's a "gorilla-gram". Jean says it's childish and wants to know if it's Sandy's birthday, but Sandy tells her the gorilla came to see Jean. Jean says "Send it away." Instead, Sandy opens the door to let it in.
The gorilla enters, growling and beating its chest. Jean just stares at it without a reaction. The gorilla seems puzzled and beats its chest again. Jean gets up from her desk, looking annoyed. "Can I help you?" she asks. The gorilla mumbles something she can't understand. She asks it to take its head off. The head is removed and the man inside advises her that she's supposed to scream. She gives him an amused and very weak yelp and says "there, now goodbye."
He's disappointed because she didn't appear to be very frightened. He says he's supposed to pick her up and run about with her and she tells him he won't be trying that with her. He's very disappointed in his inability to perform. He has a message for her in his pocket, but it's hard to reach it with those big hands. She helps him, looks at the message and says she might have known who it was from. The gorilla-man looks at her and says "Well, is that it?" Yes, unless he'd like a banana. She tells him he was really good and assures him she will make no complaints. He offers to pick her up for a quick run around on his shoulders, but she was having none of it. He told her he was going to go home on the tube, but he was leaving his head on so no-one would recognize him. She calls Sandy and tells her to get the gorilla a taxi and put it on their account.
As he leaves, Alistair comes inside the other door. "Ta-dah!" he shouts, laughing and obviously quite pleased with himself. "Monster" he says again and wants to know how Jean liked it. She hasn't had this much pleasure since she broke her arm 15 years ago. She says that she's too old for a gorilla-gram, but that's his point. He tells her that that's the kind of effect she has on him. He wants to throw her over his shoulder and run off with her into the jungle. She explains that he is carried away and this is all a fantasy. He wants her to go away with him. She said he saw what a mess she was that morning -- but he said she was "beautifully rumpled" from sleep -- he speculates that her sheets were still warm. Alistair, we discover, has it bad for Jean.
Jean meets Lionel in the hotel lounge. He thanks her for coming. She wants to know what's so urgent. He says he knows that Sandy isn't ill and he wants to know why she didn't send her over. Jean says she didn't want to make Judith look any more foolish than she must already look. He tells her it hasn't been easy in the Anderson Suite. He's sure that Judith's skirt is getting shorter as the day progresses. Things would be different if she weren't Jean's daughter, but as she is, there is a problem to be solved. Jean doesn't see what she can do about it. He admits to being flattered and tells her that he's sure she's flattered by Alistair's antics. She denies this at first, but he knows it's true and she finally says they should "retire to a home for the flattered." She tells him that Alistair sent her a gorilla-gram. He tells her he already heard about the band. She claims the band wasn't bad -- just early.
The conversation rolls around to toy-boys. This is not 1953, she informs Lionel and a woman can have a younger boyfriend if she wants one. He tells her she never used to talk like that but she reminds him if she had talked like that 38 years ago, she'd have to take her younger boyfriend to the zoo and he'd be wearing short pants. She tells him there's a double standard and that an older woman's having a young boyfriend is no different from an old man's going out with a young girl. He wants to know why suddenly she's an older woman while he's an old man. A bit more bickering ensues. Finally he says he wants Sandy back. Even though she's at least as attractive as Judith, she sees what she sees. Judith and Alistair both see what they want to see. Jean sucks in some air and grabs her back. It hurts. Lionel points out that they're pretty odd sex symbols, her with her bad back and him with his cramp.They end up laughing at the situation.
Jean gets back to her office. It's filled with heart-shaped balloons. "Guess who?" Jean has no trouble figuring it out. Sandy let him in, even though Jean thinks it is Sandy's job to protect her. She tells her she's going home because there are better locks over there. Before she can leave Alistair comes bouncing in the other door. She says she's busy. Well so is he -- after all, he's got a publishing company to run, but does he care? She says he's wealthy enough not to have to care. He announces that he has a great idea. She tells him if it involves balloons, or musicians or gorillas she doesn't want to know. He asks her to go on a picnic on Sunday. A smile comes over her face and she says she'll go. He appears to be surprised: "You've cracked."
There are conditions, though. First, he must stop pestering her for a week. He's amused by that and says he'll stop if that's what she wants -- AFTER the picnic. She's amused by his confidence. There's one more condition, but we don't hear her say what it is.
Back at the Anderson Suite we have some sense of what it might be. Lionel is on the phone. He's obviously talking to Jean and telling her he isn't fond of picnics. He doesn't understand why she wants him to go on a picnic. The camera pulls back towards Judith who is sitting on the table, flexing her legs. He tells Jean that Judith is distracting him. He says he'll ask. He asks Judith to go on a picnic with him, but he does it in a round about way. The end result is that the four of them are going on the picnic the next day. She doesn't much care for this idea. He suggests that she try to think of it as two couples. This makes her feel a little better about it. She's still flashing her legs at him and trying to be provocative and Lionel is telling her to stop it.
Now it's Sunday morning and Lionel is sitting in Jean's living room and telling her it all sounds a little bit like a bad plot for a Restoration Comedy. Jean explains the plan to him again. The hope is that Judith and Alistair will realize their love for one another and walk off hand-in-hand leaving them to their business. Each of them has doubts about whether or not the plan will actually work because Alistair and Judith are so smitten. They're being very competitive again.
Judith walks in and asks if it's warm enough for a bikini. Lionel says "why not?" which can barely heard over her "no". Jean shoots him a look.
They are driving to the country in a yellow convertible. A love-sick Alistair and a love-sick Judith look longingly at their "partners." They arrive at the riverside and Lionel can barely help Alistair carry the picnic hamper. He says he doesn't want to rest. Alistair says he has a funny color. Alistair picks Jean up and carries her about playfully. She says she feels silly but she laughs and Lionel glares at her. She asks if he's alright and he claims to be game for anything. They play with a frisbee. Lionel grabs his back -- there's that laugh track again. Alistair throws it over Lionel's head --"I wasn't ready," he shouts. Jean grins at him. Judith throws the frisbee to Jean. It goes over her head. Lionel grins at her.
Lionel and Jean are lying on the blankets talking and watching Judith and Alistair, who come up to them and remove their shirts because they're so hot. As Judith removes her shirt to reveal a bikini top Lionel finds himself staring at her and smiling. Jean looks at him disapprovingly. Alistair removes his shirt. Jean begins to smile and look at him. Lionel shoots at stare at Jean. Even.
They have lunch and all four of them lie down on the blankets. After a while Alistair suggests that he and Jean go for a stroll. She's just eaten and wants her lunch to settle. Judith asks if Lionel wants to go for a stroll but he's just gotten comfortable. Alistair suggests they set up the badminton game he's got in his car. Judith thinks that's a great idea and the two of them run off together, leaving Lionel and Jean alone.
Lionel and Jean reminisce about the time they went on a picnic. Meanwhile Alistair and Judith are talking about Lionel and Jean. Alistair wants to know if Judith is bothered by his affection for Jean because he's so much younger than she is. Judith says that she doesn't think age matters and that she, in fact, thinks Lionel is gorgeous. Alistair asks if it would be possible for them to split up later in the afternoon. "Let's do it, " they say.
They walk back to find that Lionel and Jean are fast asleep and decide that the two of them should go on a stroll. Lionel rolls over and wakes himself up by putting his hand in the food. His "oh" wakes Jean, who notices that Alistair and Judith are gone and figures her plan must have worked. Lionel thinks that watching people sleep has its limitations as a spectator sport.
They get up and stand beside each other at the river's edge. "We're just a couple of wrinklies," Lionel tells her. She prefers the wrinkles be called laughter lines. He's not sure that's a bad idea, but says that when you have them all over your body that's hard to justify. 
She laughs and looks up at him sweetly, telling him that she's glad he's back in her life again. She needs reassurances and asks if he really is back in her life. He confirms that he seems to be. They look out over the river. She tells him it's good to have a friend. He puts his arm around her and after a brief moment he pulls her towards him gently. She asks what he's doing. He says he's giving her a friendly kiss. After what seems like a very long time he stops kissing her and swears mildly. She wants to know what's wrong. He tells her he has to pee.