At their weekly breakfast, Samantha tells the girls that she's back together with Richard. The girls are shocked and skeptical. Miranda is also shocked when Steve tells her he'd like baby Brady to be baptized so he doesn't go to Hell. Carrie relates that she's finding it difficult to drum up new material for her weekly sex column now that she's not in a relationship.

But just when she thinks she's going to get fired, Carrie finds out that a publisher is interested in turning her past columns into a book. She meets with the two single female publishers and is at a loss for words when they ask her to give her readers a message. Is she an optimist or a pessimist? Carrie wonders: Is hope a drug we need to go off of or is it keeping us alive?

Even Charlotte needs a little more hope and turns to a self-help program that touts the power of positive affirmations. She brings Carrie along to the next lecture and asks the speaker why her affirmations aren't working. The speaker tells Charlotte she needs to put her self out there, but Carrie stands up for her friend and says, "Believe me, she's out there."

Meanwhile, Miranda agrees to baptize Brady to make Steve (and his nutty mother) happy. She asks Carrie to be the godmother but Carrie worries that she's become too cynical to offer any guidance to Brady. Miranda will hear nothing of it - Carrie's her best friend. As the holy water is poured over Brady, Carrie hopes that it will wash away some of her "sin-icism." She goes home and decides to dedicate her book to Charlotte - the eternal optimist.