Annalise Keating is everything you hope your Criminal Law professor will be - brilliant, passionate, creative and charismatic. She's also everything you don't expect - sexy, glamorous, unpredictable and dangerous. As fearless in the courtroom as she is in the classroom, Annalise is a defense attorney who represents the most hardened, violent criminals - people who've committed everything from fraud to arson to murder - and she'll do almost anything to win their freedom. Each year, Annalise selects a group of the smartest, most promising students to come work at her law firm. Working for Annalise is the opportunity of a lifetime, one that can change the course of our students' lives forever, which is exactly what happens when they find themselves involved in a murder plot that will rock the entire university.

Annalise takes on a new client, Max St. Vincent, an eccentric millionaire who is the key suspect in his wife's brutal murder. All the clues point to St. Vincent as the killer, but Annalise challenges her students to prove he's innocent - whether that's the truth or not. Meanwhile, Annalise deals with issues in her own home when her growing suspicions that Sam is somehow involved in Lila's disappearance start to affect their marriage. In flash forwards, we go back to the night of the murder and learn that Wes might be hiding a few secrets of his own.

Annalise helps Paula Murphy, a suburban soccer mom, get released from jail after she was arrested for a misdemeanor, but just as she’s about to walk free, she’s arrested again by the FBI in connection for felony murder. Annalise and her students are tasked with proving her innocence which will depend on the testimony from another suspect in the case. Meanwhile, the Middleton University president asks Annalise to represent Griffin O’ Reilly, the star quarterback who has also been linked to Lila’s disappearance but she’s unable to make a decision until she knows that Sam wasn’t involved in the case. In flash forwards, more clues are revealed and we discover someone else was also there besides the students during the night of the murder.

Annalise takes on a tough case defending a minor who fatally shoots his police officer father. Meanwhile, Annalise and Sam continue to argue over his relationship with Lila, and Wes and Rebecca begin to question Annalise’s motives. In flash-forwards, we learn more about Laurel’s relationship with Frank and why he was calling her the night of Sam’s death.