- As Valentine's Day approaches, Xander tries to improve his love life through witchcraft and finds himself with too much of a good thing.
- Nice, insecure Xander's unnatural passionate yet loveless relationship with snooty, selfish Cordelia has never felt right, but when her friends find out and decide that's the end of her popular status, she dumps him without hesitation, ironically without getting back in their favor. Being dumped on Valentine's day after he gave her a swell heart-shaped necklace is too much abuse even for Xander's low self-esteem. So when he notices Amy has taken up her mother's witchcraft, he blackmails her into putting his scorner under a love spell so he can take his revenge by dumping her just, as painfully. Alas, the novice's ineptly executed spell works on every girl except Cordelia and that means dangerous irrationality. Meanwhile, vampires Spike, Drusilla and, especially, spiteful Angelus have their own unconventional ideas about celebrating Valentine's day.—KGF Vissers
- On Valentine's Day, Xander is dumped by Cordelia. He asks help from Amy, an adept witch, to make a love spell. But the spell backfires: every girl, woman and female vampire in Sunnydale falls in love with him but Cordy.—Nicola Leoni
- On a night patrol in a cemetery, Xander shows Buffy the silver necklace he intends to give Cordelia for Valentine's Day. Buffy teases him for his girl while reassuring him of the gift. Xander is under no illusions as he is convinced that dating Cordelia is more perilous than slaying.
On Valentine's Day, Harmony and her followers insult Cordelia for going out with Xander. Xander notices that Amy Madison avoided homework by bewitching the teacher. He offers to speak to her as Buffy and Willow remember Amy's "amateur psycho" mother. Giles appears and asks to speak with Buffy when Jenny Calendar sees him and tries to make up. Giles decides that Buffy is more important and they leave for the library.
There, he warns Buffy of Angelus' vicious history around St. Valentine's Day. Giles decides Buffy does not need to know the details and offers to patrol on her behalf while she should stay at home. At the same time, Spike shows Drusilla a necklace that is immediately topped by Angelus' gift: a fresh heart that he found in a "quaint little shop girl".
Whiling that night away alongside her mom, Buffy receives an ominous note from Angelus. Meanwhile, Willow confesses to being a groupie of Oz and his band. Cordelia is, again, ignored by her clique when Xander approaches. After sadly praising him first for his clothes, then for the necklace, she breaks up with him. Xander is outraged at her timing.
Xander is humiliated the next morning when everyone at Sunnydale High is laughing at the way he was dumped. He spots Amy and blackmails her into casting a love spell so he can break up with a lovelorn Cordelia and "put her through the same hell." Xander decides to take back the necklace for the ritual, unaware that Cordelia is wearing it as a keepsake.
In the library, Buffy convinces Giles to tell her of Angelus' atrocities so she can be prepared.
The next morning, Xander finds Cordelia unmoved by his spell. He soon finds that it is working on every other girl. Buffy is interested in giving him a lap-dance, Amy wants to hang out and even a Harmony groupie wants to study with him at night. He runs home only to find Willow hiding under his sheets, a surprise for which he gives high marks. She offers him her virginity and he flees.
The next day, Sunnydale High girls are pleased to see Xander in the hallways; the boys, less so. Xander confesses to Giles, who is appalled at his foolishness. Jenny enters the library intent on conversing with Giles, but soon finds herself distracted by Xander's presence. When the Watcher looks for Amy to reverse the spell, he has to drag a moaning Ms. Calendar away. Xander blockades the door, only to find Buffy, only wearing a trench-coat, willing to give him more than a heart attack. When he refuses to undress her because she is under the influence, she becomes enraged, thinking he is toying with her. Amy walks in seeking Xander, too, so Buffy punches her hard in the face. Amy turns Buffy into a rat, sending her scurrying behind bookcases. Buffy-rat hurries out of the library when a confused Oz punches Xander for making Willow cry on the phone all night. Giles sends Xander home.
On his way out, Xander sees Harmony and other girls attacking Cordelia. He takes her outside only to find an axe-wielding Willow leading other Sunnydale females. Xander and Cordelia flee to Buffy's house, only to find Joyce pawing over him. Angelus then appears in Buffy's window and drags Xander out. Drusilla saves Xander from becoming Angelus' substitute present for Buffy and offers him immortality. She is distracted by Willow and her gang, and Cordelia pulls Xander back in the house. The mob break into the house with knives and sticks (except for Drusilla who lacks an invitation and can't enter). Cornered in the basement, Xander reveals all to Cordelia. She is touched.
Meanwhile, Giles had convinced Amy to reverse her spells, though they have to do without Jenny's help. Thankfully, Buffy-rat did not eat the cheese on a mousetrap in the school basement, but Buffy does find herself with a "slight case of nudity." And just as they are about to kill the young couple, the spell is lifted from the obsessed women in the Summers' basement. Thinking quickly, Cordy commends their scavenger hunt.
The next morning, all has returned to normal, but Willow still refuses to talk to Xander due to her already loving him prior to the spell. Buffy is impressed by Xander's reaction to her seduction. And, after Harmony insults Xander again, Cordelia finally faces up to her friends and walks away locked arm-in-arm with Xander.
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