As a 19-year-old faces a lengthy prison sentence for marijuana possession, Maude and a group of middle-aged housewives plan a protest at a police station. The plan is to get arrested for possession and Maude is supposed to provide the pot. However, trying to get her hands on some, proves to be problematic.

Walter and Maude go to Massachusetts for an appliance seller's convention. When their reservations at a upscale hotel are botched, they must share a shabby motel. This is when a squabble ensues when Maude tries to confide in Walter the angst she has over not having any meaning in her life and the troubles she's been having trying to find a job because she's a woman.