Miranda goes out with Nick Waxman, a sports agent who's also a serial modelizer. When Nick's friends let her in on his secret, she ditches him. "If men like Nick are dating models," she tells Carrie, "What chance do ordinary women have?" Later, Carrie and friends dish about competing with models, who get all of the non-dating advantages, as well. Carrie ponders the question, "How powerful is beauty?"

Carrie visits her artist friend Barkley's loft, and gets a sneak peek at his big project: a montage of videos recording his sexual liaisons with the city's top models. It's so hot, Carrie can only respond by having a cigarette. Lucky for her, she can cleanse her mind of all of the sinful thoughts by grabbing a bite with the ever-innocent Skipper, who confesses his love for Miranda, before making a pathetic call to her answering machine.

Carrie continues her research on beauty by joining Stanford Blatch at a fashion show in which his biggest client, The Bone, is participating. Stanford pines over The Bone, who, unfortunately, claims to be straight. Later, Carrie joins Samantha in the crowd for the show, and Barkley drops by, drawing Samantha's interest. Carrie tells Samantha about Barkley's model obsession and his video collection, but this only adds to the challenge. When Samantha finally seduces him, she gets the camera time she wanted.

Carrie also runs into Mr. Big at the show, only to discover that he, too, is dating a model. She leaves the after-party, depressed, only to fall into platonic slumber with The Bone.

Coincidentally, The Bone confesses that he never dates models.

In the final scene, Mr. Big stumbles onto Carrie, working on her article in a coffee shop. "There's so many beautiful women in this city," he tells her. "But the thing is this. After a while, you just want to be with the one who makes you laugh."