After a sunbathing Carolina explains to the audience that the vocabulary words are about visiting, Helen talks on the phone to Mrs. Clusky. After she hangs up, Helen tells Martha to be on her best behaviour as they might be expecting a visitor. Martha asks who the visitor is, so Helen explains that it's Mrs. Clusky's dog. Martha thinks this sounds like fun, and Helen asks Mariella. Mariella isn't sure if Helen can "handle" three dogs, but Martha is sure she can.
Mariella says yes, so they prepare for the arrival of the dog, who turns out to be a teacup poodle named Francois. Mrs. Clusky tells Helen how to look after Francois (among other things, he's demanding, wears a sailor suit on Sundays, and is allergic to grass) and leaves. Martha tries to play with Francois, but he would rather nap, and when the Lorraines marvel at him chasing his tail, she becomes jealous of the attention and points out that she chases hers all the time.
At dinner, Francois begs for a meatball. Despite Martha saying that begging never works, Danny gives him one. Francois then sits at a table, which the Lorraines find cute, declaring, "He thinks he's a person!". Martha tries to sit at the table too and says, "I'm a person too!", but accidentally knocks the table over. That night, Francois wants to take Martha's chair from her and steps on Skits, causing them to argue in barks. This wakes up Helen, who mistakenly thinks Martha was being rude and not offering her "bed".
The next day, Helen massages Francois (since she was told to do that twice a day), and Martha wants a massage too, but Helen doesn't have time. The next day, Alice and Carolina visit and admire Francois in his sailor costume. Martha complains to the Lorraine parents, who recognise that she's jealous and try to reassure her, but it doesn't really work.
Helen and Alice then play soccer, and Alice comes over and makes cupcakes. At night, Martha hears noise and goes to check, but finds nothing awry. However, the next day, the cupcakes are gone. The Lorraine ladies ask Danny, Martha, and Skits, but they all deny eating them. Martha suspects Francois, but Helen points out that he's too short, and thinks Martha is lying out of jealousy.
Helen leaves for school, while the dogs try to prove Francois stole the cupcakes. Skits accidentally moves a stool, which makes a sound Martha recognises as the one she heard the previous night. She moves it to the counter and determines that Francois is too short to get onto the stool, but then Skits moves a shorter stool over, making Martha realise he climbed from one stool to the other. Unfortunately, when she demonstrates, Mariella sees her and thinks that means she did it.
Helen makes some more cupcakes, then when she and Mariella leave to buy sprinkles, the Lorraine dogs spy on Francois. Sure enough, he moves the short stool, then the tall one, and climbs on the table. Helen and Mariella are due back, but they get stuck in traffic. Luckily, they come in and catch Francois just as he's eating the last cupcake.
After Francois leaves, Helen apologises to Martha and gives her a massage to make up for not believing her. Francois is then revealed to have felt bad about being a rude guest and thus given Helen tulips. Unfortunately, he'd stolen Mariella's.
This episode provides examples of
- Big Eater: Francois, despite his size, can eat a whole batch of cupcakes in one go.
- Blatant Lies: When Martha and Skits pretend to leave so Francois won't think they're watching, she says, "Skits and I are going to go upstairs for no reason at all". Despite the transparency of the lie, Francois believes it.
- Dog Stereotype: Francois is demanding and likes wearing clothes, like many cartoon poodles.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Danny suspects Martha of being jealous of Francois, she denies it because jealousy by definition involves coveting something of the object of the jealousy, and she doesn't want a sailor suit.
- Continuity Nod: Skits's knack for catching objects in midair from "Martha and Skits" is brought up again when Martha tells him to let the visitor catch the disk.
- Copycat Mockery:
- While sulking over being jealous of Francois's attention, she mockingly parrots Mariella's "what a clever monkey" line.
- When Helen says, "I think someone is making stuff up because they're jealous of someone else!", Martha replies, "Y'know, just because 'someone' is a dog doesn't mean that 'someone' doesn't know who you're talking about!".
- Fake Alibi: Some cupcakes go missing. The Lorraines think it can't have been Francois, the visiting dog, who ate them, because he's too small to reach them. As it turns out, however, he did eat them, accessing them by standing on a chair.
- Fantasy Sequence: Martha imagines herself and Skits having fun with Mrs. Clusky's dog, who she imagines as a rough collie.
- Foreshadowing: Francois is foreshadowed as the real cupcake thief when he licks his lips after seeing the girls make the cupcakes.
- Funny Phone Misunderstanding: When Helen tells Martha not to be so rude, while on the phone with Mrs. Clusky, she then adds, "Not you, Mrs. Clusky".
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Francois's sailor suit contains a shirt and hat, but no pants.
- Ironic Echo: When the Lorraines are impressed by Francois's ability to climb into a chair, Mariella calls him a "clever monkey". Later, when he's busted having climbed up to eat the cupcakes, Martha says, "He's one clever little monkey".
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: When Danny suggests Martha is jealous of Francois's privileges, she says, "First he gets meatballs at the table, and now privileges?! That's so unfair! What are privileges?".
- Jealous Pet: When Francois gets given lots of attention, this makes Martha jealous.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Francois is known for being demanding, is said to nip people when he wants to be put down, and he steals cupcakes. Despite this, (even though it disappoints the Lorraine parents), he tries to apologise by giving flowers.
- Mistaken for Thief: When the cupcakes go missing, Mariella and Helen initially think Danny ate them. When he denies it, Helen thinks Martha or Skits ate them, then later Mariella thinks it was Martha when she climbs onto the counter (demonstrating what Francois did). Actually, it was Francois (but he wasn't a suspect since he's too short to reach them; they didn't realise he stood on furniture.)
- Picky Eater: Francois apparently won't eat anything white unless it's soy milk.
- Plot Allergy: Francois is apparently allergic to grass.
- Prank Injuries: Downplayed. Martha fakes having a sore back to try to get Helen to massage her.
- Pun: Martha says that Helen is a great dog-sitter and Skits is a great "sitting dog".
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The Lorraines are correct that Martha is jealous of Francois, but wrong when they think she's falsely blaming him due to said jealousy.
- Say My Name:
- The Lorraines yell, "Mar-tha!" when she causes a crash.
- Mariella yells, "Martha!" when she sees her on the counter.
