After seeing a human interest story on the news about a man named Frank Grimes, who had overcome extreme hardships in his life to obtain a nuclear physics degree, Mr. Burns decides to hire him as his new executive vice-president and sends Smithers out find him. Upon returning with Grimes, Smithers finds out that Mr. Burns had forgotten all about Grimes after just seeing another story on the news about some heroic dog. Mr. Burns explains that he wants to make the dog his executive VP instead and orders Smithers to put Grimes somewhere out of the way and then go find the dog. Grimes is given a lower level position in the plant working alongside Homer, Carl, and Lenny. Grimes immediately takes a disliking to Homer after seeing Homer's lazy and inept ways at work. In a number of funny scenes, Homer proceeds to annoys Grimes by first knocking over a cup of specially monogrammed pencils Grimes had and suggesting Grimes turn the cameras around in his office so he can sleep without the boss seeing him. Homer later accidentally eats Grimes' specially prepared dietetic lunch and further annoys Grimes by constantly being in the break room pigging out or sleeping in a radiation suit after getting drunk at work. Grimes is also taken aback when finds out that Homer is the plant's safety inspector. Later, Homer goes into Grimes' office to mess around much to Grimes' annoyance. While there, Grimes alerts Homer to an emergency going on at his work station, which Homer proceeds to fix by hilariously pouring water on the workstation shorting out the circuits.
It all really comes to blows when Grimes saves Homer by knocking a beaker of acid out of Homer's hand that he was about drink which destroys a nearby wall. Mr. Burns walks by and sees the damaged wall and severely reprimands Grimes without giving him a chance to explain the incident. Finally all fed up with Homer's shenanigans, Grimes marches into Homer's office and tells Homer that he hates him and orders him to stay away from him. In an effort to make amends with Grimes, Homer invites Grimes over to his house for dinner one night. The visit just serves to further infuriate Grimes when he sees Homer's large house and family, along with Homer's grammy award and many pictures on his wall of him visiting outer space and posing with various celebrities such as former president Gerald Ford. The fancy lobster dinner Marge was preparing didn't help matters either. Angry that Homer has managed to make his way so easily through life while Grimes has had to struggle just to get by, Grimes declares Homer to be a complete fraud and walks out. The next day Homer is frustrated about the incident and doesn't want to go to work and face Grimes again. At the suggestion of Marge, Homer does return to work with plans to show more ambition on the job. Grimes however doesn't buy it, and after again listening to Carl and Lenny defend Homer once more, he decides to prove once and for all that Homer is an idiot and a complete fraud. He then notices a flier on break room bulletin board about a children's power plant contest Mr. Burns is holding. Grimes takes the flier and cuts the references to the contest being for children on the and lays it at Homer's workstation. Homer takes the bait much to Grimes' delight, and rushes home(while carelessly smashing into Grimes' car along the way)and works tirelessly in his basement to build an entry for the contest. In the end, Homer builds what turns out to be just be a model of the current power plant, but with racing stripes added to the two cooling towers, along with a pair of wind shears. The entry pales in comparison to other entries in the contest from the children, including Martin Prince's futuristic-looking model of the power plant which was actually lighting the whole auditorium. To Grimes' surprise however, Homer manages win the contest. After hearing everyone applaud Homer, Grimes finally goes berserk and goes running through the plant mocking Homer's foolish ways. It all comes to an end when Grimes grabs some electrical wires and electrocutes himself to death. Homer later sleeps through Grimes' funeral and asks Marge to "change the channel" which prompts a hearty laugh from everyone there, including Reverend Lovejoy and Mr. Burns, with Lenny exclaiming "that's our Homer!"
There are also some funny scenes in the episode where Bart buys a dilapidated factory for $1 at an auction he walks in on while at the DMV where Marge was renewing her license plates. Bart later goes to the factory where he pretends to be the boss while hiring Milhouse as one of his employees. The two play in the factory until it finally crumbles and falls sending all of the factory's rats into Moe's in a funny scene.
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