Plot

When he is punished for staying out too late on a school night, Beaver writes a letter to popular advice columnist "Ella" hoping that a sympathetic response from her will convince his parents that he is being treated unfairly.

Beaver returns home from a trip to the library at 10 o'clock on a school night, which is past his curfew and especially troublesome since the library closed at 9 o'clock. When Beaver returns home, he is punished by his parents: he is no longer allowed out on school nights, especially as his school work is not up to snuff. A sullen Beaver believes this punishment is unfair and unjust, especially as his friends Mike and Kevin, who were also out with him that night, got no reprimand whatsoever, and as such have much more freedom than him. Furthermore, the grounding interferes with his ability to go to the jalopy races with Mike and Kevin, for which they got free tickets. Eddie gives Beaver the idea to write to Ella of the "Tell It to Ella" advice column in the newspaper, as Ella seems often to side with her young letter writers in disputes involving their parents. Although Eddie has thoughts of Beaver writing a lopsided letter in his own favor, Beaver decides to write as balanced a letter as he knows how. He plans to shame his parents by showing them the column when Ella answers in his favor. Beaver doesn't even contemplate the possibility of Ella siding with his parents, which would leave him in a last minute scramble to figure out what to do about Ella's advice, which Ward and June read all the time.—Huggo