Maude hires a new housekeeper, Florida Evans, and from the moment she walks through the front door, Maude is determind to make her feel like an equal. However, her attempts lead Florida to decide to quit. Meanwhile, Walter is a bit disturbed to find Philip swearing into a tape recorder.

Florida is backed into a corner by her chauvinistic husband, Henry, who has picked up a second job and orders her to quit her housekeeping job at the Findlays home. Soon it begins to cause problems for Maude and Walter as Walter takes Henry's side and Maude takes Florida's.

Maude and Walter are scheduled to play cards one evening with some friends but Maude is anything but in a card playing mood. Especially since, she just came back from a doctor's appointment with some shocking news. At 47 years old, Maude has become pregnant. Now the hard part, breaking the news to Walter.

After Carol suggests an abortion, Maude begins heavy debating over the pros and cons of having a baby at her age. Walter's ""what-ever-you-want"" attitude has Maude having a problem deciding wheather or not to keep the baby. Ultimately, Maude takes into consideration everyone's opinion and makes a final decision, she decides not to have the baby.

Maude pulls out all her high school memorabilia as she awaits the arrival of an old school friend, Phyllis Nash, who was nicknamed both ""Bunny"" because of an overbite and ""Mousie"" because of her looks. However, Maude is stunned and becomes envious when she discovers Phyllis is now a beauty with a career to match.

An old friend of Maude's comes for a visit with news of a feud between herself and her daughter. This leads Maude to go all out and try to reconcile the two but a generation gap and financial matters are working against her attempts. Meanwhile, at the same time, Maude tries to matchmake her friend up with Arthur.

Maude is convinced that her best friend, Vivian has the ""perfect marriage"" so she is completely stunned when Vivian announces plans for a divorce. This leads Maude to analyze her supposed ""perfect marriage"".

Walter and Maude go to Massachusetts for an appliance seller's convention. When their reservations at a upscale hotel are botched, they must share a shabby motel. This is when a squabble ensues when Maude tries to confide in Walter the angst she has over not having any meaning in her life and the troubles she's been having trying to find a job because she's a woman.

Walter and Maude are planning on taking a second honeymoon to Italy, however, the day their plane leaves, Maude gets a tetnus shot which results in a rash. She immediatley hotfoots it down to the doctors office where she encounters a busy preoccupied doctor who perscribes her medication but doesn't advise her on how to take it, resulting in an overdose, cancellation of the honeymoon and a possible malpractice suit.

Carol and Maude thinks it's cute when they discover a curious Phillip playing doctor with Arthur's equally curious granddaughter. However, the prudish Arthur insists that Phillip be severely punished which leads to a debate between Maude, Cariol and Arthur over morals.

Carol is dating Russell Asher, a dashing writer, who just happens to have once dated and later jilted Maude. This leads Maude to do her best to warn Carol of Russell's egotistical ways. However, Carol refuses to heed Maude's warnings and continues to date him, even spending the night with him which turns into a disaster.

Tired of living with her mother and stepfather and wanting a father figure for Phillip, Carol decides to propose marriage to a man she doesn't love. Meanwhile, married life doesn't seem to be all what it's cracked up to be for Maude and Walter who's argument leads to destruction in the kitchen.

Maude and Walter prepare for a dinner party at Cliff and Joanna Naylor's home. However, while they are getting ready, they discuss and bicker about Cliff's apparent crush on Maude and how she is flattered by him, that is until Walter breaks the news that Cliff is having an affair with someone else at the country club.

Carol's odd behavior leads Maude to believe she's having an affair. When Maude learns Carol is really seeing a psychiatrist, she is determined to get to the bottom of the situation and find out why her daughter needs therapy. Maude promptly makes an enexpected visit to Carol's psychiatrist but soon finds herself being analyzed.

Returning home from shopping, Maude gets pulled over for speeding 34 miles in a 30 mph zone, but adamantly refuses to believe she was speeding at all. Later, during the trial, Maude tries all attempts to get out of paying the fine and prove her innocence.

While waiting for the electoral results for Election 1972, Maude and Walter recall Election 1968. Carol had just gotten a divorce and moved in with Maude. Meanwhile, Walter and Maude's relationship had reached a pivotal moment; should they marry or live together.

As a 19-year-old faces a lengthy prison sentence for marijuana possession, Maude and a group of middle-aged housewives plan a protest at a police station. The plan is to get arrested for possession and Maude is supposed to provide the pot. However, trying to get her hands on some, proves to be problematic.

Maude plans a surprise 50th birthday bash for Walter that does not go as well as she planned since Walter is too depressed to have any fun. However, Maude hopes an old friend will be the cure for Walter's gloominess, but she is dead wrong when he drops dead before Walter's eyes.

Maude throws a fund raising party for a black militant leader and invites rich white liberals but doesn't tell them it is a fund raising party. Meanwhile, Maude does her best to get a black couple to attend the party but must settle for a disguised Florida. Arthur doesn't help the situation either after prescribing tranquilers to Maude who during the party mixes them with alcohol.

After a fire breaks out in his home, Arthur moves in with the Findlays and immediately works over Maude's nerves. Not only does Arthur keep Walter up all night playing card games, but he gives Florida work to do and insists Maude prepare his food in a certain way. Pretty soon, Maude insists that Walter throw him out.

Carol walks into a cocktail lounge and catches a glimpse of Walter having drinks in a cozy corner with a woman who once worked for him. When Maude finds out, she immediately jumps to the conclusion that Walter is having an affair and promptly packs up his things and orders him out of the house.

Maude is stunned to discover a black man picketing in front of her home. It isn't until later that she discovers that Walter and her have unwittingly become the owners of a rundown apartment building and they are now being labeled ""slumlords"".