Ross refuses to allow Rachel to pass on her irrational fear of playground swings to their daughter since her hair got caught in one and, 'far worse,' had to be cut off unevenly. He takes them both to the park where he has to face his fear of spiders in exchange for getting Rachel to try a swing after seeing Emma enjoy it. Monica thoroughly clears away everything that might scare off Laura, the social worker from the adoption agency, but Joey, who promised to turn up in case she's impressed by a TV 'celebrity', once dated Laura and never called back as he always falsely promises - Meanwhile, after trying on Monica's veil, Phoebe changes her mind about having donating her wedding day budget to the New York Children's Fund and so drags fiance Mike along to seduce the foundation's clerk, who she supposes is gay, to convince him into refunding, then feels guilty again.

Monica and Rachel fight over who gets Phoebe's ugly painting. Joey gets mad at Chandler for lying about watching his audition tape. Ross can get a big grant, but Charlie's ex-boyfriend is in charge of it. He bribes Ross for the grant if he gets Charlie back. Charlie breaks up with Ross to get back together with her ex-boyfriend.

Monica and Chandler let Joey write a letter of recommendation for adoption, but they find out that he sent the letter written in crayon. The adoption agency thinks a kid wrote it. Rachel's sister, Amy, visits again, and moves in with Joey and Rachel. Phoebe keeps ruining Mike's chances of proposing. While watching Emma, Amy gets Emma's ears pierced.

On Emma's first birthday, Rachel won't let the party start until Emma gets up. Then the cake ends up looking like part of the male anatomy so Rachel & Ross go to New Jersey to get a new cake. When Ross and Rachel get back, the others are playing with Emma's toys.

Joey and Rachel consider themselves ready for lovemaking, but their hands strangely refuse to deliver normal service: she keeps slapping him, he is unable to undo her bra, a standard model, which he normally can handle with only one hand. Ross is envious of Monica's tan, so he goes to the studio to get sprayed himself, but messes up the simple instructions so he ends up dark on the front and lily-white on the back. Meanwhile Phoebe and Monica are annoyed by their old friend Amanda Buffamonteezi and her fake British accent, so they decide to ignore her calls, without telling Chandler...

Ross deals with finding out about Rachel and Joey's relationship almost as well as when he found out about Monica and Chandler. Ross invites Rachel and Joey to a dinner party with him and Charlie. At dinner, Ross gets drunk quickly and embarrasses himself. Rachel and Charlie go home which leaves Joey taking care of Ross. In the morning, Joey and Ross talk and Ross says he will get used to Joey and Rachel. Frank Jr. and his kids come to town and he asks Phoebe to have one of them, but he is not willing to give up any of them. Chandler and Monica visit friends of Phoebe's who adopted a son but Chandler accidentally reveals to their son that he was adopted after which he tells Frank Jr.'s kids that Phoebe gave birth to them which they also did not know.

Monica, Chandler and Phoebe find out that they can hear through the walls in their hotel rooms. Monica and Chandler cover the wall where they can hear Joey and Rachel kissing, and Phoebe covers the wall where Charlie and Ross are kissing. Both couples put their relationships on hold while they wait to talk to the other before proceeding. On the plane home, Ross tells Joey about him and Charlie, but Joey doesn't tell Ross about him and Rachel. Monica decides to get rid of her poofy hair by getting corn rows. Back in New York, Ross walks in on Rachel and Joey kissing.

Chandler gives advice to David, but that makes David want to propose to Phoebe. Although Phoebe is still in love with Mike. Monica calls Mike who shows up there right in the middle of David's proposal. Mike proposes instead. Phoebe gets back together with Mike, but doesn't accept his proposal. Monica's hair gets all poofy after getting off the plane. Charlie and Ross enjoy themselves when rewriting Ross's speech. Rachel keeps changing her mind on when to tell Joey that she has feelings for him.

When Joey hears that his girlfriend Charlie is an insecure shopper, he volunteers expert Rachel, who dreads being alone with her, so she makes sure Phoebe comes along, by saying she needs a dazzling outfit for the party she's going to just to save face as her ex Mike is coming too. Gynecologist Dr. Connelly tells Chandler and Monica they should keep trying the natural way, but realistically consider a surrogate mother -a nightmare for Monica- or donor sperm insemination, so Chandler invites his 'perfectly eligible' colleague Zach for dinner; they scare him with endless health and genealogy questions, yet Monica has another objection... Ross hopes to be the key note speaker at a paleontology convention on Barbados thanks to his spectacular theory, but it makes professor Sherman, who can get it for him, literally fall asleep. After embarrassing misunderstandings in the shop, Phoebe bumps into David, who is back from Minsk, for good...

Still unable to conceive, Monica and Chandler decide to get tests done at a fertility clinic, where they run into Chandler's favorite ex, Janice. Rachel receives a gift certificate for a free massage at a chain massage center. Phoebe chastises Rachel for even thinking about going to a massage chain, which she feels takes away business from independent massage therapists like herself; however, Phoebe actually works at this specific massage chain. Rachel says she won't go and even tears up the gift certificate, but she later tapes it back together, goes for her free massage, and gets Phoebe as her masseuse. Joey and Charlie's relationship progresses, Joey confides in Ross that Charlie might be too smart for him. As Charlie wants to go to the "Met" (not to see "The Mets" as Joey originally assumes), Ross coaches Joey on the museum's layout and certain paintings on a planned route through the museum.