An 11-year-old boy's life turns topsy-turvy when his mother and blind father decide to separate.
Mel must reveal he's blind to his biggest client. Meanwhile, Henry is mistaken for being blind when he borrows Mel's guide dog, and Joyce is validated as being cool by her grad-school study partner.
Father and son, Mel and Henry, push each other to ask out women in their building, only to discover the women they're pursuing are mother and daughter. Meanwhile, Joyce, lost at sea on her first date since the separation, panics and crashes Katie's date at a carnival, resulting in an impromptu mother-daughter double date.
Mel discovers he has trust issues when he and Joyce disagree over how to discipline Katey. When Katie goes missing, Mel and Joyce have to team up to find her. Henry, needing a break from his family's drama, forces Runyen to allow him to sleep over for the first time in their friendship.
In her ongoing quest to assert her independence, Joyce is determined to get a job. Mel encourages and supports her until she actually gets one - at Mel's law firm. But, surprisingly, Mel and Joyce work together well. It's Joyce and Mel's secretary Janice who can't play nice, and their feud sets fires that Mel scrambles to put out. Meanwhile, tired of seeing Henry strike out with over-the-top romantic gestures, Katie coaches him on how to land Jenny: play it cool.
Mel flips out when he finds marijuana in his daughter Katie's bag - only to discover his ex-wife Joyce put it there. Apparently, Joyce is trying things she never could when married to Mel. Meanwhile, as his twelfth birthday approaches, Henry is convinced he's going blind since that's the age his dad was when he lost his sight. It's irrational, but just in case, Henry and his best friend Runyen, embark on a quest to see the one thing a boy must see before he goes blind.
Katie gets her driver's license, only to discover she must shuttle Mel all over town. Meanwhile, Joyce struggles to fit in with her study-group classmates, so she uses Henry to connect with them.
When Sloan cancels on Mel, Mel struggles to find a new plus-one for an important charity event, and he's determined to show his peers that his post-divorce life is going smoothly. Katie becomes invested in helping her dad find a plus-one, as her secret party at her dad's apartment is in jeopardy if Mel doesn't attend the event. Meanwhile, Runyen's mom thinks Henry is a bad influence on her son, so Joyce confronts her in order to defend the Fisher family honor.
When Mel thinks Henry is becoming a slacker, he takes him into work to show him what success looks like. Seeing his dad in action, Henry learns an unexpected lesson that helps him step out of his father's shadow. Meanwhile, Joyce and Katie decide that in Mel's absence, they need to stand up for themselves, which makes for a couple of bold, and embarrassing, confrontations in the returns department of a furniture store.
Joyce finds out Katie has big plans for after the Spring Formal with her boyfriend, Anthony. In order to confirm what she thinks, however, Joyce has to promise Katie she'll keep her secret from Mel. Meanwhile, Mel has one final chance to have a successful first date with Allison and has promised to make her dinner. The only problem is that he has no clue how to cook. With both parents distracted, Runyen points out that Henry can get away with anything and should milk it for all it's worth.
Stress gets the better of Mel, causing him back problems. Not wanting the family to worry about him, Mel discovers that sneaking into Joyce's when no one's home to take bubble baths is just the remedy to unwind and cure his aches. Meanwhile, when Joyce gets straight A's in her grad school classes, she sees her future as a therapist set in stone and panics. However, she can't work up the nerve to tell her family she wants to pursue a different career path. Also, despite being told she can't get a part-time job, Katie secretly starts working at the yogurt shop managed by her boyfriend, only to learn that work and love don't swirl. And Henry, with Runyen as his trainer, secretly prepares to fight a bully.
When Joyce's free-spirited sister, Madi comes to visit, Mel couldn't be happier since his separation from Joyce means Madi is no longer his problem. But that doesn't stop Madi from getting in Mel's head. She suggests that the woman he's dating, Allison, is burdened with having to take care of her blind boyfriend, so Mel sets out to prove her wrong. Meanwhile, it's Runyen who gets in Henry's head, convincing him that he and Jenny are spending so much time together, they've fallen into the dreaded friend zone.
When the divorce papers arrive in the mail, Mel is determined to preserve for Henry and Katie a sense of normalcy, and keeps their annual family trip on the books. When Joyce's online date walks out on her, Mel grudgingly invites her along. To their surprise, while on what has previously been a vacation from hell, Mel and Joyce discover that their separation has allowed them to finally appreciate one another - just as they're ready to sign the divorce papers. Meanwhile, Henry's crush, Jenny, tags along on the vacation, which forces Henry to overcome his fear of horses so he can make the most of this getaway with the girl of his dreams.
