The Summers women are at the hospital when the doctor informs Joyce she'll have her surgery in two days. Joyce and Buffy are both surprised that it is happening to soon (and it shows how serious Hoyce's condition is)

The rest of the Xander, Willow and Giles do their best to patrol and rid Sunnydale of a few more of it's un-dead residents. Willow is extremely pleased because she managed to stake two of the vampires, while Xander reckons he should get points just for turning up.

Elsewhere in Sunnydale, Riley allows a female vampire to feed from his arm, he looks to be enjoying it. The next day, Willow brings gifts to Joyce, Buffy, and Dawn. Buffy nicknames her the little Jewish Santa. Will buys Dawn a spellbook. (Buffy is worried that Dawn will start breaking things with her mind now) one of those beer hats for Joyce and Homework for Buffy. Buffy decided that she dosn't believe in her little Jewish Santa anymore. With the brain tumor, Joyce has unusual outbursts and shouts and Dawn and Willow. On the way out, a mental patient points out that there is nothing inside Dawn. Ben comes up and asks if the mental guy was bothering them but Buffy brushes him off telling him everything's fine.

Willow and Tara camp out on the roof of a building and watch the stars.Willow knows them by the porper name, but Tara never learnt them, prefering to call them by her own names, like the Big Pineapple for example. A large object crashes down in Sunnydale.

The Mental Patient (one of Glory's afters), who has been released from the hospital, is walking through the forest when a creature attacks him.

At the hospital, the creature climbs along the ceiling, undetected. Buffy and Joyce talk the doctor into letting Joyce go home until her operation. Joyce doesn't want to stay there and She reckons she can look after Joyce herself.

The Scoobies go out of the hunt and find the location of the crash and the dead body of the released hospital patient. They discover a horrible musuc-y substance in his mouth, he seems to have suffocated.

Faced with the choice of searching for The Snot MOnster from Outer Space or hitting the books the gang decide the books are the safer option.While they go to the shop, Riley calls Graham. He later advises the military officers who answer the call on how to deal with the situation.

At the hospital, one patient is attacked by the demon. Buffy's mom continues to act strangely and say things she doesn't mean to say. Dawn is hurt when Joyce calls her a "thing", but Buffy comforts her and tells her to ignore those

Xander and Wuillow's research turn up that a Queller demon has been summoned to kill crazy people. Back at home, Buffy gets Joyce settled into bed and both her and her sister try to ignore their mother's outbursts. Joyce lays in her bed, talking to the ceiling until we see that she is actually talking to one of the Queller demons.

In the kitchen, Buffy washes dishes trying to ignore her mum until she suddenly breaks down into tears. The demon spits its slime onto Joyce and Dawn, hearing her mother's screams, comes to the rescue.

Although Buffy is crying, (and the radio is turned up loud), she eventually hears Dawn's scream and goes after the demon. She chases the demon about the house and tells Dawn to stay with joyce.

Buffy finds Spike stealing pictures from her basement, but can't yell at him as the demon attacks again. Ben gets into his car at the hospital and Dreg is waiting in the backseat. Ben reveals that he summoned the Queller, to clean up Glory's mess, a job he has done many times before.

The miliatary guys track the Queller demon to the hospital but then the trail seems to go cold, unitl they realise that it has hitched a ride in someones car. Riley has a flash of insight and knows that the demon has gone to the Summers'. Buffy corners the Queller in the demon and with a little help from a large kitchen knife disposes of it just as the military guys burst in. Riley goes to check that Buffy is okay but she brushes him off and goes to check on her mum.

Joyce goes back into the hospital for her operation and asks Buffy about Dawn. She knows that Dawn isn't really her daughter and Buffy has to tells her the truth. Joyce asks Buffy to take care of Dawn in case anything happens in the surgery. While her daughters and the rest of the Scooby Gang watch on, Joyce is wheeled off to surgery.