Homer enrolls in a "How to Succeed in Being You" course and takes a new attitude to work, where he makes suggestions to improve safety at the power plant. When Burns laughs at Homer's proposals, Homer and Lisa devise a plan to take the plant from him.

After being legally out-maneuvered, Burns signs the plant over to Homer, and Homer becomes the new CEO. With the company's future in his hands, Homer begins to make cutbacks to ensure financial stability. He even lays off everyone save himself, but there is no one to monitor the machines now running the place and the plant suffers a major meltdown.

At the eleventh hour, Burns returns to restore older.