The Wilson family arrives in Beverly Hills, after Harrison "Harry" Wilson takes a job as the principal at West Beverly High School, while his children, Annie and Dixon, attend the school during their first week much to the awkward circumstances of their father watching over them, while Harry and his photographer wife, Debbie, also keep a close eye on Harry's washed-up, alcoholic, actress mother, Tabitha. For Annie and Dixon, the school is one big culture shock for Annie, a sweet and friendly girl with a passion for the theater, and Dixon, a star athlete and scholar who was adopted by the Wilson family after they took him in as a foster child. Annie and Dixon have a close sibling relationship, which they'll need to help them cope with all the new cliques and classmates, including Naomi Clark, a hot and stereotypical spoiled rich girl who believes that money buys everything; Ethan Ward, Annie's former boyfriend from Kansas who's now Naomi's boyfriend, and a popular lacrosse star whose abilities rival Dixon's; Navid Shirazi, an aspiring student reporter who heads up the school's daily TV newscast; and Erin Silver, a rebel and wanna-be socialite who produces and stars in a YouTube-type video series, and who develops a crush on Dixon. Adrianna is a fellow student and theater "goddess" who is Naomi Clark's best friend... and Ethan Ward's secret girlfriend, and who has a serious drug addiction; George Evans is an arrogant West Beverly High student, who takes an instant dislike to Dixon because of his race (Dixon is black). Wendy is "sexy vixen" student at West Beverly Hills High who takes every advantage of her looks; Ty Collins is another student and theater major. Even the faculty seems hip and sophisticated at the school whom include the smart and funny teacher Ryan Matthews, beautiful guidance counselor Kelly Taylor, and successful theater actress-turned-high school-musical director Brenda Walsh. The Wilson family has just begun to realize how much their lives are about to change.

Naomi finds herself in trouble when she fails an assignment, and Ryan and Kelly bring the issue to Harry's attention, while Harry struggles with a disturbing revelation about the result of a secret tryst with Naomi's mother, Tracy, from many years ago. Meanwhile, Dixon learns more about Navid when they team up to try to pull a school prank against Palisades High. Annie meets a potential love interest in the form of drama student Ty Collins, who turns out to be the wealthiest student at West Beverly, and who spirits her away for San Francisco for the evening. Silver posts the story about Ethan's infidelity with Naomi on her Internet blog, while Adrianna continues her self-destructive slide into drugs and debauchery. Also, Ryan tries to ask Kelly out on a date, but she has to find a babysitter first for her four-year-old son, and former West Beverly alumni Brenda Walsh, now a successful Broadway and London theater director, arrives back in town to help put on a new school play.

Dixon and Annie find their Friday night plans disrupted after Debbie and Harry plan a family bowling night without consulting them. So, Annie plans to sneak out of the place to meet with Ty to attend a rock concert, while Dixon plans with Navid and Ethan to sneak him out so they can watch a movie at Navid's house. Meanwhile, Naomi has an unpleasant evening with her estranged and selfish businessman father, Charles, who puts her off for work. Also, Dixon invites Silver over to the Lucky Strike Bowling Alley, and he later finds Silver asleep in his car. Silver then confides in Dixon about her troubled home life and how her drunkard mother, Jackie, verbally and physically abuses her. The news gets back to Kelly who confronts Jackie about it, while at the same time, Kelly continues to be sought after by Ryan who tries asking her out on a date.

Adrianna and her evil-witch-mother, Constance, plot a cruel revenge against Annie and the rest of the faculty at West Beverly whom they think cheated Adrianna out of her role in the school play. Debbie's boss, Antonio, offers her a job to shoot a fashion show for Nylon Magazine during Fashion Week, where Annie uses the opportunity to her advantage for a class assignment, while her father advices her to try to make amends meet with Adrianna in order to try to catch her in the act with her substance abuse. Naomi believes the upcoming fashion show could help her parents' marital problems and she plans with Ethan to try to break up her father and mistress and have her mother, Tracy, meet with Charles, but it only makes matters worse. Ty and Annie's relationship is put to the test because of Adrianna's meddling. But when Adrianna lets her guard down and reveals to Annie that she lied about hooking up with Ty to break them up, it results in Annie declaring war. Silver is pursued by Debbie's sleazy client, Tony, to work in modeling, while a jealous Dixon becomes aware about what's going on, while Navid feels like he's the 'third wheel' to Dixon and Silver's growing romance. Meanwhile, Kelly receives a phone call from Sammy's father that could change her relationship with Ryan when she's offered to move to Wyoming to join Dylan, while Brenda, with her work at West Beverly finished, plans to return to New York.

Silver's struggles escalate and she reaches her breaking point. Kelly teams up with Ryan to look for her. Annie is forced to team up with Ethan and Naomi to search the school for Silver while Dixon is haunted by the problems of his past.

Donna finds herself in a dilemma when she confides in Kelly during a night on the town that she must decide between returning to Japan and being with David, or moving back to Beverly Hills and keeping their 20-month-old daughter, Ruby, which leads her to decide to open up her own design shop in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Silver is the topic of gossip at West Beverly due to her recent mental issues and does not know if she is ready to return to school. While Annie and Naomi try to patch things up between them in order to help Silver, Annie soon overhears that Naomi's father is being served a sexual harassment lawsuit, and she keeps it to herself... and later regrets it when Naomi is evicted from her hotel suite. Ethan continues on his downward spiral due to Liam's bad influence in wanting to be a bad guy as Liam is. Also, Adrianna and Navid meet with potential adoptive parents for the baby. Elsewhere, Harry and Debbie hold a yard sale when they finally sell their Kansas house and try to get rid of all of their old house's possessions as they plan to move out of Tabitha's house and to find a house of their own in Beverly Hills.