The episode starts off with Pikachu and Piplup walking together on the road and singing. After a few tunes, Piplup gets tired and stops. Its stomach growls, and Ash assumes that Piplup is hungry. Brock mentions that there is a Pokémon Center a short distance away, so the group decides to go there for lunch. Meanwhile, Team Rocket also state that they are hungry. Jessie states that the trees are full of fruit, and she tells James and Meowth to call her when lunch is ready. She says that she is going to do some more training for the Pokémon contests. Jessie then walks away into another part of the forest and sends out Dustox. She imagines herself winning another Pokémon Contest and moving up to the top rank. While James and Meowth are picking fruit, they notice that Jessie is very confident with herself.

Suddenly, Dustox begins to fly away. Jessie wonders where Dustox is going and she follows it. After a few moments, she notices that Dustox is playing with another Dustox, one with a brownish color. A boy walks out from behind the trees and tells Jessie that the brown Dustox belongs to him. He then introduces himself as Austin. Jessie tells Austin that the two Dustox are acting strange. Austin explains that they have actually fallen in love, and it's quite normal. Every year there is a special event called the Dustox Crossing, and the Dustox gather around the lake. When a full moon comes, all of the Dustox create a golden archway across Mt. Coronet. Austin thinks that his and Jessie's Dustox will be crossing with the others. He then whistles for his Dustox and tells Jessie that he will see her later in the evening when the event begins.

Jessie and her Dustox sit together next to the lake. Jessie asks Dustox if it really likes Austin's Dustox. Her Dustox goes crazy about it and blushes. Jessie then has a flashback of when she was taking theater lessons. Jessie and her two friends were going to be auditioning for a part. The three of them promised that there would be no romance. Before the audition, she met up with Austin, and Austin asked Jessie to come along with him so that they could be a team. Not wanting to break her promise, Jessie declined his offer. The day of her audition, her two friends made it in, but she failed. The flashback ends, and Jessie realizes that you only get one chance at love.

A storm begins to take its place. A bolt of lightning strikes down on a tree. Dustox pushes Jessie out of the way before she could get hit by the falling tree. Jessie gets knocked out cold and this worries Dustox. Meanwhile, at the Pokémon Center, Ash and co. are looking out of the window at the storm. Dawn wonders how the storm came in so quickly. Nurse Joy walks up to the group and hopes that the storm doesn't affect the Dustox Crossing. As soon as Nurse Joy speaks, Brock falls in love with her. To prevent Brock from going insane, Croagunk stops him. Ash asks Nurse Joy about the Dustox Crossing. Nurse Joy explains to them what it is. She hopes that the bad weather goes away so that the full moon can come out. The Dustox Crossing can't happen unless the full moon is seen. Suddenly, Austin rushes into the Pokémon Center and reports that some of the trees have been struck by lightning and that the water is overflowing.

Jessie wakes up at the sound of James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet. She realizes that Dustox was the one who saved her earlier, and she thanks it. When Jessie has recovered, they begin to take their leave, but they notice that the river is flooding. Jessie wonders what will happen to the Dustox Crossing. After hearing Jessie's story, James asks her if she plans on releasing Dustox. Jessie replies that Dustox deserves to find love, and she wants Dustox to be happy. James decides to help out Jessie with her decision, and Meowth supports it too. Meanwhile, Ash and co. have arrived at the flooding lake. Austin is feeling a bit down since he was hoping his Dustox could participate in the Dustox Crossing. Ash decides to go up where the flooding is taking place to see if there is a solution to the mess. The rest of the group follow him there.

When Ash and co. get there, they see Team Rocket patching up the flood with large boulders. Team Rocket begins to say their motto, but half way through Jessie cuts it. She demands Ash and co. to help them patch up the flood by blocking the water flow with big rocks. If the lake is gone, the Dustox can't make their crossing. Nurse Joy thinks that helping out is the best idea, and everyone else agrees. Ash, Dawn, Brock, Jessie, and James all send out their Pokémon to help. Everyone begins to take boulders and place them at the lake's edge to block the flow of water. When all the rocks are in place, Nurse Joy tells everyone that they need to saturate the rocks and then freeze them. Piplup and Buizel get the rocks wet, and then Buneary freezes them with Ice Beam. With that, the flood has been plugged.

A second problem arises. Because so much water was flooded out, it will take a while for all the water to return to the lake. Nurse Joy points up to the top of the lake where a bunch of snow rests. The snow can be used to refill the lake. So Buizel and Piplup both use their water attacks on the snow. Then Chimchar uses its Flamethrower to melt the snow. The snow turns into water, and all the water pours down into the lake. However, as the water begins to fill up the lake, Nurse Joy is worried that it won't be enough. They look underneath them and see all the water that flooded out of the lake. Austin says that his Dustox can use Confusion to lift up the water, and Jessie replies that her Dustox can use Whirlwind to put the water back into the lake. After they create a plan, Jessie and Austin have their Dustox transfer the water from one place into the lake. Their plan is successful as all of the missing water is being transferred into the lake.

Night comes, and a full moon is seen in the sky. Nurse Joy states that the weather conditions are now perfect for the Dustox Crossing. Jessie's Dustox flies on over to meet up with Austin's Dustox. The two Dustox begin to play together when suddenly Jessie's Dustox flies back to Jessie. Jessie tells her Dustox to go back with the other Dustox so that they can have a family. Jessie's Dustox is quite sad since it will be leaving its trainer. Jessie sees another flashback of her and Austin. In the flashback, Austin says goodbye to Jessie as he leaves to become a Pokémon Coordinator. When the flashback ends, Jessie orders Dustox to leave her and be with Austin's Dustox. Unfortunately, her Dustox is too scared to leave because it's too loyal to its trainer. Jessie then pulls out Dustox's Pokéball and drops it on the ground. Then, with all her might, Jessie smashes the Pokéball. With no Pokéball left, her Dustox is forced to leave. Sadly, Jessie's Dustox flies together with Austin's Dustox towards the Dustox Crossing site. All of the Dustox then form a line and create the golden archway as they all fly towards Mt. Coronet. Dawn states on how beautiful the site is. Austin and Jessie softly say goodbye to their best friends as they depart forever.