After Mike helps her with some tough math homework, Marcia decides to nominate him for the local newspaper's father of the year contest. When Marcia inadvertently breaks curfew to mail it to the newspaper office before the deadline, Mike and Carol ground her when she won't say why she was out past her bedtime, and as a result she'll be missing the family's upcoming ski weekend. However, when Mike discovers Marcia's motive's for breaking curfew, he has a change of heart of the punishment handed down.