Paige struggles to balance school and the movie when she works on an econ term paper that counts towards half of her grade. Nina is upset that Paige is attempting to reschedule fittings in order to work around her school schedule. Paige promises to make it work and meets with the agent that Nina set her up with. She brings along Cassie and Jake, who gives the agent his script. The agent feigns interest, but Jake later finds his script in the trash outside the restaurant.

Nina gets a visit from Alan Mills in the ladies' room telling her that she needs to trim the budget for Locked by $3 million and also secure Tangey's contract for singing the Locked theme song. Nina visits Rainer and explains the situation to him, telling him that all the cast will be getting a pay cut. He agrees to take the cut to his pay. Nina also visits Tangey's mom/manager and manipulates her into signing the song contract by getting her to agree to sign on to replace Rachel's role in the film for a lower fee.

Paige relies on Cassie and Jake to help her with research for the paper while she attends wardrobe fittings. Jake sacrifices more time working on his film thesis presentation (to secure a grant to make his movie) in order to help Paige with her paper. Cassie cancels on Brody to help Paige. Paige winds up staying very late on set for her fitting when they need to do lighting tests, and she bonds with Rainer as he shows her around the studio lot and the sets. When she gets back home, Jake is furious at her for having stayed out so late.

Alexis and Rachel, newly reunited, have problems when Alexis tells Rachel that she wants to keep her private life private and is wary about the two of them both working together on Locked. Rachel is offended, thinking that Alexis wants to keep their relationship a secret. They argue.

The next day, Jake confides in Cassie that his thesis presentation went poorly and he won't be getting the grant after all. He also tells her that he never heard back from Alexis Glenn. He is thinking of switching his major and giving up on film. Cassie calls Paige (who is on set doing a promotional photo shoot with the rest of the cast) to tell her, and Paige realizes she really messed when she answered Alexis' call to Jake's phone by cursing at her in Spanish. She confesses to Alexis about what she did and asks her to please call Jake again. Alexis responds by demanding the dress Paige was wearing and forcing her to do menial tasks for her.

Rainer discovers that Jordan did not accept a pay cut and becomes angry at both Jordan and Nina. Nina explains to him that she needs someone of a critically-acclaimed actor caliber for the movie to be a hit. Rainer is offended that she considers Jordan to be that and not him. He tells her that sometimes he just needs her to be his mom, not a producer.

Meanwhile, Jordan deals with the woman from his past who threatens to expose his old life. She demands $50,000, wanting to open a nail salon in Tucson. Though it's a lot of money, Jordan agrees. In the end, he's only able to come up with $25,000, but Nina shows up at their meeting place with the rest of it. She threatens the woman to stay away from Jordan and stop asking for money. It's revealed that the woman is Jordan's mother. Nina reassures Jordan that they won't have to deal with her again. As Jordan's mom drives away, a cop pulls her over, saying they got a call about someone swerving. He finds her bag of cash and in it, a baggie of drugs that Nina planted there. Jordan's mom is arrested as Nina looks on, smiling.

Rainer and Jordan begin to mend their relationship. Elsewhere, Jake and Paige's friendship falls apart after Alexis calls him and tells him what Paige did when she answered his phone and didn't tell him that Alexis had called. Jake tells Paige that Alexis' agents read the script and love it. They argue and Jake storms out. Paige doesn't hear from him and he ends up going out to the desert with Alexis, where she promises to teach him a few things about Hollywood.

Rainer gives Paige some advice about being direct with his mom about her need to do the movie and school and to present Nina with solutions, not problems. Paige visits Nina and tells her that she's staying in school no matter what. She rearranges her school schedule to be available every day but Wednesday. Nina agrees.