Max is reluctant to tell his parents that he wants to strike a romantic chord with Celia, a young Polish girl he's teaming up with for a piano competition. After consulting the quirky Rabbi Teitleman, though, Max decides to speak up.
Max is shocked when Celia informs him that she's confessed their first kiss to her priest. Max decides to confess to Rabbi Teitelman, only to discover that Jews only do that once a year - so Max takes things into his own hands.
When Max, Celia and Bobby are assigned a project at school to plan a nuclear fallout shelter, they decide instead to present a realistic picture of what their home town might look like following a nuclear war.
Rabbi Teitelman performs his comedy routine for the first time at a coffeehouse in the city, and budding journalist Max decides to cover the event for his school newspaper.
After Max thinks he has spotted a UFO and Sandy finds a strange pattern on a field near his house, the town goes into a frenzy over a possible encounter with extraterrestrial visitors.