The Curious, a mysterious masked being who "collects" strange tales, is shown building a sandcastle and wandering the seashore.
Jessie's parents constantly embarrass her with their loud, obnoxious behaviour. She is jealous of her popular neighbour Patty, whose parents seem to love her very much and bought her a pair of trendy pink shoes for her birthday, which Jessie asked her parents for, but they didn’t buy them as they are very expensive. After an argument, Jessie's parents try to make it up to her by buying her new shoes like Patty's; but give her a cheap, knock-off pair, which, although are the same brand as Patty’s new shoes, they are not at all trendy and this gift embarrasses Jessie in front of Patty and her friends. Jessie yells at her parents and storms off.
Jessie goes down to the beach to blow off steam, and watches a performance hosted by Mr Blackteeth, a Punch and Judy-style puppet. Mr Blackteeth's assistant, "The Bottler", approaches her after the show and encourages her to tell Mr Blackteeth her problems. Jessie is unnerved by the puppet and his weird responses to her, but opens up to him. Mr Blackteeth grants her a power, which she can use if she taps on her head three times and says "That's the way to do it," then she will be able to control her parents. Jessie is sceptical but knocks on her head and says the words after Mr Blackteeth accuses her of being scared.
When Jessie's parents don't get up for breakfast the next day, she realizes they have been turned into puppet-like automatons under her control. Jessie is overjoyed when she realises her parents are under her control. She orders them to buy her the shoes Patty has and that they act politely and don’t crack jokes. They go to a party that Patty's family invited them to, and Jessie is at first happy that she can make her parents act "normal." She likes that Patty is a bit jealous of her for a change when she realises that Patty is annoyed that Jessie has the same shoes as her. Jessie also offers to help Patty get some drinks for the party guests and Patty’s mother is thankful, though Patty looks like she wants to avoid Jessie. Jessie wants to befriend Patty to try and gain some popularity but Patty is cold to her. Jessie asks Patty while helping her get drinks if she’d like to walk to school together as they are in the same class and live next door to each other. Patty coldly tells her she doesn’t want to.
However, she starts to have second thoughts about her deal with Mr Blackteeth when she sees her dad unable to tell a joke to his friend when his friend asks him to; and witnesses Patty's mother verbally abusing her daughter, and she realises that perhaps she is lucky to have her parents. Jessie tells a sad Patty that she looks pretty when her mother belittles her for having a small stain on her dress. Patty’s eyes look almost thankful, and they start getting along better. However, Jessie stands outside in Patty’s garden bored. Patty and her friends cover Jessie in ketchup and bully her, causing Jessie to realize there's no way they would ever accept her. Worse, her mother is laughing, as Jessie ordered her mother to laugh when everyone else did. At home, she sadly looks at family photos and accepts that she wants her parents back. She tries to reverse the spell or command them to return to normal, but is unable to do so.
Jessie goes to look for Mr Blackteeth, but he is no longer there. She traces him to another seaside town called Karter Bay, where she sees that her parents have become the new puppets in his act. She begs Mr Blackteeth to free them, and he explains there's only one way: they will need "understudies" to replace them. The Bottler explains that he deliberately lured Jessie in order to save his own parents; now, she will take his place as Mr Blackteeth's assistant until she can find understudies. Mr Blackteeth asks Jessie how far she will go to save her parents. He then sarcastically wishes her good luck with saving her parents. Some days later, during Mr Blackteeth's show, Jessie watches a boy intently in the audience who is unhappy after an argument with his parents.
Elsewhere in the streets of Karter Bay, The Curious pockets one of the posters advertising Mr Blackteeth's show; and vanishes.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Patty's mother is vile to her behind closed doors.
- Affectionate Nickname: Jessie's dad calls her "Dinky".
- Alpha Bitch: Patty.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Jessie's, and she learns that she wants them just as they are.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The moral of the episode.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Jessie's mother likes to make "healthy" green smoothies that taste disgusting.
- Creepy Monotone: How Jessie's parents speak once they become puppets.
- Deal with the Devil: In order to get her parents back, Jessie takes The Bottler's place to get some "understudies".
- Downer Ending: It's left unanswered if Jessie will succeed in saving her parents, but she still is forced to trick another kid in order to free her own, apparently not able to think of a way around the deal. However, the end of the episode implies Jessie will trick another kid. Either way, someone will get hurt.
- Here We Go Again!: The ending of the episode implies Jessie will trick another kid into handing his parents over to Mr Blackteeth.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Jessie, until she realizes that she wants her parents back as they were before.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Jessie is unpopular in school and clearly wants to be friends with her popular neighbour Patty Peterson to gain some popularity, however she soon realises that Patty and her friends will never accept her and she loses interest.
- Ironic Echo: All of the dialogue that Jessie's parents state in the first half of the episode is repeated again when Jessie (now appreciative of her parents) finds Mr. Blackteeth's booth and sees her parents turned into real-life puppets.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jessie realizes that turning her parents into puppets was a bad idea and decides to go back to Mr. Blackteeth to change them back.
- Nonindicative Name: Mr. Blackteeth has pearly white teeth.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Bottler.
- People Puppets: What happens to any parents whose child makes a deal with Mr. Blackteeth.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Mr. Blackteeth appears in a nice black suit.
- Shrinking Violet: Jessie is unpopular in school but desperate to be popular. She is a bit shy and jealous of her neighbour Patty, who is the most popular girl in Jessie’s year, but she did try and become popular and overcome her shyness, but to no avail.
