In San Francisco, the three vastly different Halliwell sisters are reunited in the grand Victorian home of their childhood: Prue, the oldest, is driven to succeed and dislikes the free-spirited antics of the youngest sister Phoebe. Piper, the earthy middle sister, mediates between her siblings. Phoebe discovers The Book of Shadows in the attic and their witchly powers are activated, igniting a bond that reaches beyond petty, sisterly grudges. Prue has the power to move objects, Piper to freeze time and Phoebe to see the future. The sisters must band together to battle dark forces of the supernatural world. Keeping their powers secret could prove a challenge, since Inspector Andy Trudeau, Prue's ex, is closing in on a serial killer preying on local witches. Piper narrowly escapes death when she discovers her white-bread boyfriend Jeremy, an evil warlock, is the killer. Sparks fly when the sisters try their first spell -- Jeremy is vanquished, and they discover the power of three.

The sisters attempt to keep their special powers in check. This proves especially challenging for Phoebe, who can't resist peeking into the future when it comes to an attractive guy. That guy may look like hip New York photographer Stefan (guest star Michael Philips) but is actually Javna, a deadly demon with an eye for young ladies. He maintains his eternal youth by sucking away their life force, using the oldest line in the book (Are you a model?) and Phoebe falls for it. Prue rekindles her high-school romance with Andy and lands a prestigious job at an auction house but is struggling to keep her new-found witch status under wraps. Piper worries about being a good person while being a witch are calmed when she enters a church unscathed. Phoebe narrowly escapes Javna's evil eye when Prue and Piper come to her rescue. Javna is the Halliwell sisters first lesson that they have more than warlocks to worry about and much more to learn about their powers.

Barely have the sisters discovered their new powers when their long-lost father resurfaces in their lives. How convenient! Piper and Phoebe never really knew Victor Halliwell, but Prue remembers all too well how he walked out on them. She gives Victor major attitude when she suspects he's returned to steal The Book of Shadows. It seems like everyone's in the market for a good book, because the shape-shifting neighbors have their sights set on the volume as well. They appear to be three fun-lovin' twentysomethings, but when no one's looking they turn into attack dogs, Prue's boyfriend and dear old Dad, all in an attempt to finagle the book. After working out some sticky family issues, the sisters unite their powers to save Pops and make supernatural jelly of those nasty shape-shifters. But before you can say, Happy Father's Day, Victor has vanished from their lives again and the sisters are doing it for themselves -- again.

Prue tries to avoid a birthday celebration while Phoebe takes a cheesy job as a lounge psychic so she can afford a decent birthday gift. What started as a trivial way for Phoebe to use her powers for cash becomes a positive experience when she saves a man's life. Prue is devastated when she finds Andy on a lunch date with the ex-Mrs. Trudeau, whom she didn't know existed. Piper befriends a ghost, Mark (guest star John Cho), who was murdered by a gang leader and whose ghostly soul will be dragged to hell if his body doesn't get a proper burial. The sisters save Mark's soul, but Piper is brokenhearted after he vanishes. Realizing every birthday in life should be celebrated, the sisters throw a bash for Prue, who accepts a forgiving smile from Andy. After all, how can she resent his keeping a secret when she has a whopper of her own.

Overworked at her new job, Prue finds her beauty sleep disturbed by strange visions in which she's taunted by a handsome man. Capable of stalking others in their dreams, he's already succeeded in killing women while they slumber. Inspector Andy Trudeau is hot on his heels. Phoebe conjures a spell to attract men, but it turns out too strong, and Piper and Phoebe can barely escape their myriad admirers. Learning their lesson, the sisters end their romantic magic and focus on Prue, who falls into a coma after the sleep demon tries to throw her off a skyscraper. At first, Prue's powers don't seem to work in dreamland. But with her sisters by her hospital bed, Prue musters the strength to send the sleep demon over the edge. He dies in his sleep, just like his victims before him.

The sisters feel evil brewing when a priest dies before a high-society wedding that Piper is catering. Uncomfortable with the priest's mysterious death, Prue investigates a special knife that disappeared when he died. It appears the bride was responsible for the priest's death and is a demon. This bride is not interested in eternal bliss but in creating more demonic offspring by putting the innocent groom under a spell to marry her. A supernatural fight ensues between the bride-to-be, her demonic wedding party and the Halliwell sisters. The demons have the magical knife that disappeared, and in the commotion, the spellbound groom ends up with the powerful weapon. The knife breaks the spell and the groom points the blade towards his former demonic fianc? and pals who get sucked into its point. During this maternal adventure Phoebe has a disturbing dream. Could Phoebe's dream about Piper carrying Jeremy's baby be just a nightmare or a premonition? He was, after all, her boyfriend for a while before they realized he was a demon and destroyed him.

Prue tries to find time with Andy. Phoebe and Piper vie for the attention of Leo. A troubled teenager, Aviva befriends Phoebe with the hopes of joining the Halliwells. Aviva has been lured to the dark powers of witchcraft by Kali, a sourceress who appears to her through a mirror. Turns out Kali has given Aviva a mission to gain the sisters' trust and steal their powers.

Acting on Phoebe's premonition, the sisters race to stop a mysterious killer from striking again. Prue finds a truth spell and uses to find out Andy's reaction to her being a witch. When the spell ends, nobody but the sisters remember what was said and Andy's reaction toward Prue's secret may break them up.

A warlock from the past is released from his curse and tries to steal the sisters' powers with the help of Rex and Hannah, but the sisters resurrect their ancestor to combat him. Piper works up her courage to ask Leo out. Andy gets frustrated by Prue's continued involvement with bizarre police investigations.

Prue is framed by her boss, Rex, for stealing from the auction house and murdering to cover up the theft. When Piper and Phoebe figure out Rex is a warlock, they break Prue out of jail to help defeat him. Their plans are quickly ruined when Rex is there to photograph their crime and to blackmail them into giving up their powers for Prue's freedom. The girls then are faced with the decision of whether to give up their powers or not.

Phoebe's roguish ex-boyfriend comes to town looking for a reconciliation, but his attentions have always come with strings attached, In this case a stolen Egyptian urn which carries a mortal curse. Although Prue's overprotective sisterly hackles are raised by Clay's arrival, she deals with her own problem of trying to save the auction house from bankruptcy. Piper's use of her powers in a misguided attempt at matchmaking may backfire.

Piper is attacked by a vicious beast. Andy goes on a stakeout with an FBI agent who is hunting the creature. Prue hires Phoebe to work at the auction house, but Phoebe's vision of a terrible car crash immediately sends her off on a mission to find a long-lost child.

The sisters' mother warns them about a demon from the underworld who comes around every 1300 years on Friday the 13th to literally scare witches to death and feed on their fear. Phoebe has misgivings about her expected duties at a new job. Piper's superstition about relationships starting on Friday the 13th has her frustrated.

Prue helps a young witch who has been kidnapped, and renews her own faith in having children. Phoebe finds out that Leo is really a guardian angel for good witches. Leo must break up with Piper.

Phoebe's fear of the Woogyman amuses Prue and Piper, until an earthquake releases a shadow demon. Phoebe under the control of the Woogyman tries to kill Prue and Piper, who must find a way to rescue Phoebe and get rid of the Woogyman.

A warrior comes to town to kill the eldest sibling witch as he did to the sisters' great-great-great-aunt. Phoebe has a premonition of Prue being stabbed to death. To increase her power and vanquish Gabriel, Prue recites an incantation to multiply her power but it ends up creating two more of herself.

A powerful warlock shows up claiming that he made a pact with the sisters' mother in which he spared her life in exchange for the girls' powers. Fleeing him, the three sisters go back in time to the 1970s when their mother was still alive and they try to prevent the pact.

Brendan seeks to become a priest so as to avoid fulfilling his destiny as a warlock to complete the triangle of the Evil Charmed Ones with his half-brothers. Prue tries to help Brendan resist the urge to succumb to his evil side and stay on the right path, after witnessing a confrontation between him and his brothers. Phoebe tries to get Piper to stop shying away from a date with Josh.

When a young boy is kidnapped in a park, Prue's powers are seen by a reporter. As Phoebe and Piper learn that Grimlocks kidnapped the child to steal their eyesight, Prue is confronted by the reporter who tells her he is going to expose her secret with or without her help. Phoebe seeks out an old victim of the Grimlocks, a blind man, to try to figure out where the children are being held. Piper learns her boyfriend is willing to pass up a job in Beverly Hills to stay in town with her. Andy finally learns about Prue's powers.

While taking a tour of Alcatraz, Phoebe watches the ghost of killer take possession of a guard's body so he can cross the waters surrounding the prison. Once free from infamous prison the ghost targets those that played a part in his conviction to seek revenge. The sisters discover the only way to banish the ghost is for one of them to die and recite a spell while on the astral plane. Piper worries about leaving Prue and Phoebe alone as she leaves on a business trip.

The sisters' vacation is cancelled when Leo shows up, victim of a dark lighter's lethal poison tipped arrow. He is seeking the sister's help to protect a girl that is being targeted by the dark lighter. To try to save Leo from dying, Piper casts a spell that will swap her powers with his. Mistakenly the spell also causes Prue and Phoebe's powers to swap. Andy leaves his job to help protect Prue's secret from being exposed by an Internal Affairs investigation.

As a warlock makes plans for his attempt to kill the Charmed Ones, he receives a visit from Tempus, a demon who will turn back time until the warlock succeeds in killing all the sisters. Upon turning back time after the first failed attempt, Tempus informs the warlock only he will remember the previous events. Because of the endless loop, Phoebe's has a number of strong cases of deje vu. Phoebe sees Andy's death at the hand of a warlock.