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Detective Don Polehaus arrives at Connie Kendall's house to investigate a shocking report: Connie's car has been stolen. Connie can hardly believe it could happen in a nice, safe town like Odyssey. She explains that she has been fighting a cold, and the powerful medicine she took the day before left her so groggy she can barely remember anything. That morning, as her younger sister Jules rushed to catch the school bus, Connie remembered she had picked up Jules's clarinet reeds and left them in the car - but when Jules went to get them, the car was nowhere to be found. Connie first called Whit, since Whit's End was the last place she remembers driving, but the car isn't there either.

Polehaus immediately suspects Buck Oliver, a known former criminal who spends time with Jules, and he begins questioning people all over town. Whit confirms that Connie was so woozy she kept dropping dishes at Whit's End, so he drove her home and then spent the rest of the day in Connellsville. Eugene Meltsner, Buck's guardian, is outraged that anyone would accuse Buck, and he nearly gets himself in trouble defending him. But Eugene also provides an important clue: Buck could not have taken the car from Whit's End, because Jillian Marshall, Connie's boarder, had already driven it away.

At Triple J Antiques, Jillian sheepishly admits she borrowed Connie's car because her own is in the shop. She meant to bring it back, but her boss Rufus drafted her into a full day of furniture deliveries, and after a late dinner she stayed overnight at a friend's house - and completely forgot about the car, which she left parked out front with the keys inside. After all, "It is Odyssey."

Then word comes over the radio: the car has been found, and Buck has been caught driving it, his bicycle stashed in the trunk. Buck flatly confesses and seems resigned to going to jail, sure that Polehaus is finally getting what he has always wanted. But before the interrogation can finish, Jules bursts into the station and confesses that Buck is only in trouble because of her. Riding home on the school bus the day before, she spotted Connie's car outside Triple J with the keys still in it, and she decided it was the perfect chance for some driving practice - even though she isn't allowed to drive without a licensed driver. Everything went fine until a bunny hopped into the road; she skidded to a stop out near a farm, the car died, her phone had no signal, and she had to flag down the school bus to get home. Too scared to confess, she kept quiet and hoped the police would simply find the car. Then, needing her clarinet reeds, she begged Buck to skip his free period, bike out to the stranded car, fix it, and drive it back.

Hearing all this, Connie decides to drop the charges, since no one was truly trying to steal her car - everyone, in their own muddled way, was trying to bring it back to her. But before releasing Buck, Polehaus asks one sharp question: if Buck was returning the car, why was he caught heading out of town? Buck breaks down, admitting he doesn't really know what he was doing. Polehaus gently tells Buck that he understands: as an orphan in his first real home, Buck doesn't trust that the love around him can last, so he was testing it - expecting it all to fall apart if he did something bad enough. Instead, Polehaus reveals, every single person he accused defended Buck. Eugene "fought for you like a lion," ready to take on the detective himself - "Because that's what dads do." Odyssey is a town full of people who leave their keys in their cars because they trust each other, and they love Buck too. "You don't need to test it," Polehaus tells him. "You just need to trust it." Then, to Buck's amazement, he lets him go free, trusting he won't do it again.

That evening, Polehaus phones his mother just to say hello - and, for the first time, to thank her and his late father for adopting him. As they say goodbye, she reminds him of his father's old saying about taking his keys, but Donnie says he's going to leave them in the car this time. After all, it is Odyssey. Besides, he adds, the car's in his garage - "I'm no fool!"