The show revolves around the lives of 8-year-old Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other.
Fritz asks Buster to take care of the community garden for him while he recovers from his ankle injury. Buster has to stop short when he finds out he's going on a camping trip with his mother. So, he asks Muffy, Francine and Arthur to care for the garden for him.
Arthur's dream is to have Moon shoes, but he does not have the ten dollars to get them. When he begins working chores to receive money, he got too desperate and does something he will regret.
Arthur has plenty of gripes about his past babysitters, but soon finds himself trying his hand at some babysitting of his own. He ends up having the Tibble Twins' Grandma ask him to babysit the infamous Tibble Twins and he agrees to the job. Despite the warnings from both his friends and D.W., he takes on the task and quickly finds himself overwhelmed. After some quick thinking, and a willingness to keep at things, he comes up with a plan.
The Read Family is having a big reunion, with aardvark relatives from all over coming. Arthur normally enjoys the festivities, such as sack-racing and swapping stories, but finds himself hiding because he's worried that his cousin Mo has a big practical joke planned for him. He remembers her being awful to him in the past and is sure that she has something big planned. However, his worries might just be unfounded.
Arthur is excited about his birthday. After shopping for party supplies, he makes invitations and passes them out at school. He then finds out that Muffy is having her party on the same day, at the same time. This starts a huge battle between the boys and the girls in the Ratburn class. Fortunately, Francine and Arthur devise a great solution to the problem.
Francine has always gotten the worst roles in school plays, so everyone in the Ratburn class asks Mr. Ratburn to give her a good part in the next one. The play is about Thomas Edison, and Francine is given the role of Edison himself. She takes her role very seriously, to the point where she starts to trying to run everything her way and insults her friends. After the hurt and the anger, they set out to show her that she can't just forget their needs