Phoebe returns to San Francisco after losing her job to live with her older sisters, Prue and Piper. During their first night together in their grandmother's house, Phoebe finds a book of witchcraft and recites an incantation that leaves the sisters three with powers they were destined to have.
Piper is scared of her powers and what might happen if she enters a church. Phoebe meets a photographer who sucks the life out of young women to keep himself young. Prue has relationship complications with Andy and gets a job at an auction house.
The sisters' estranged father returns, but he has teamed up with the new neighbors who are shape-shifters trying to steal the Book of Shadows.
Prue discovers a devastating betrayal. Piper falls for the ghost of a recently murdered man who needs her help. Phoebe works as a psychic to help others and make money for Prue's birthday present.
Prue finds her sleep disturbed by strange visions in which she's taunted by a man. Capable of stalking others in their dreams, he's already succeeded in killing women while they sleep. Phoebe and Piper cast a spell to attract men, but it turns out too strong, and they can barely escape their myriad admirers.
A mother made a promise to give her son in marriage to Hecate if Hecate would grant her money and power. Now Hecate is back to claim her husband, because only in a sanctified marriage can she conceive and give birth to a full demon child. The son is being forced into the marriage under a spell, and his beloved original fiancée has been banished. Piper is catering the wedding with help from Phoebe. A priest tries to vanquish the demon, but fails. When he falls out a second story window, Andy takes the sword he was carrying to Prue to find out where it's from. Phoebe thinks Piper might be pregnant with a demon child because of a premonition. Finally the three sisters compare notes, realize what is going on, and stop the wedding just in time.
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 premonitions, the sisters race to stop a mysterious killer from striking again. Meanwhile, Prue finds a truth spell and uses to find out Andy's reaction to her being a witch, but 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 dejà vu. Phoebe sees Andy's death at the hand of a warlock.
