Niles meets Frasier at Café Nervosa to hear bad news: Maureen (Jane Kaczmarek), Martin's girlfriend, intends to break up with Martin as she feels they have nothing in common. Niles himself has better news to share: he has won an award for an article he has written about a narcissistic opera singer, but is nervous about bringing Martin to the awards dinner, as he fears Martin will embarrass him in front of his friends and colleagues with tales from his childhood. Martin, as it turns out, reacts to the break-up extremely well: having come to the same conclusion as Maureen, he has in fact found another woman, Sherry (Marsha Mason), whom he has been seeing. Later, at his birthday celebrations, Daphne, Niles and Frasier meet Sherry. It soon transpires that, whilst incredibly friendly and sociable, she is loud, boisterous and brash, and to make matters worse, plays the banjo. Frasier and Niles soon take a disliking to her, but nevertheless pretend to like her for the sake of Martin's feelings; however, as spending time in her company gradually becomes more straining for both of them, they realize that they will have to confront Martin about her. Niles, initially, is quick to back out of the responsibility and leave Frasier to shoulder the burden (and Martin's anger) all by himself. However, he soon learns that Martin intends to bring Sherry as his date to Niles' awards ceremony.