Brenda goes shopping with Kelly and her wild friend Tiffany and wishes that she had their kind of money. Unbeknowest to her, Tiffany is a shoplifter and when they get arrested, Brenda begins losing her mother's trust. Meanwhile, Brandon gets a job at a trendy restaurant where his boss treats him horribly and pays the minority employees less than minimum wage. Cindy grows uncomfortable when Jim hires a maid.

When Brandon and Steve try out for the basketball team, Brandon learns that the school recruits minority students from out of district in order to boost their stats and is forced to make a difficult choice in order to secure a spot on the team and make his father proud. Meanwhile, Brenda decides to take driver's education again, but fails twice and ends up losing Brandon's car when trying to pick Kelly up from a bad date.