the plot.

In the small Virginia town of Mystic Falls, teenager Elena Gilbert and her brother Jeremy can't come to grips with the fact their parents have recently died and are both looked after by their aunt, Jenna. Elena becomes emotionally withdrawn over hiding her grief, while Jeremy turns to drugs and slacking off to avoid dealing with his own feelings. Nothing goes as planned for both of them during their first day back at school when a mysterious new student, named Stefan Salvatore, attracts Elena's attention, leaving her ex-boyfriend Matt jealous and her semi-rival Caroline unaware of what's happening. Elena's friend, Bonnie, suspects something off about Stefan as does Tyler Lockwood. After Matt's sister Vicki is bitten by something they believe to be an animal, it's discovered that Stefan is a vampire. Stefan (who does not feed on humans) realizes he is not the only vampire in town. Stefan's brother Damon enters the picture; they have not seen each other for 15 years.

Mystic Falls begins the preparations to celebrate the passing of a comet. While Vicki recuperates in the hospital from her injuries caused by a vampire, Stefan uses his abilities to erase Vicki's attacker from her memory, but is interrupted by Matt. Meanwhile, Mr. Tanner warns Jenna about Jeremy's recent behavior and tells her that she is doing a bad job of taking care of the two teenagers. Elena and Damon meet for the first time at the Salvatore house and his revelation about Stefan's past brings Elena closer to the truth. Elena and Stefan kiss. Damon finds his next victim in Caroline.

The semi-psychic Bonnie tells Elena that she has a bad feeling about Stefan, so Elena decides to invite Stefan and Bonnie to dinner at her house so that they can get to know each other better. At school, Tyler attempts to humiliate Stefan by throwing a football at him, but it backfires as Stefan uses his vampire speed to effortlessly catch the ball and passes it back. Stefan ends up joining the football team. During dinner, Damon and Caroline unexpectedly show up, and Elena "invites" him into her house. Stefan gives Elena a necklace filled with vervain to protect her from Damon. When Stefan attempts to convince Damon that he still has some humanity left in him, Damon attacks and kills Mr. Tanner as a rebuttal.

Elena and Stefan go to the town's annual Founders' Party, hosted by Tyler's parents. Vicki gets Tyler to ask her when she refuses to associate herself with Jeremy. Damon tells Elena about the history of the Salvatores after Stefan tries to cut Damon out of his life. Damon also retrieves an amber crystal from one of the historical artifacts in the Lockwood Estate. Meanwhile, Stefan uses Caroline as a vessel to poison Damon. When Damon sucks Caroline's blood, he falls ill. Once Caroline wakes up, she sees the amber crystal and puts it in her purse unaware of its power. Stefan locks up a weakened Damon at the Salvatore property with their cousin Zach to stand guard. The Founders Council, including Mayor Lockwood (Tyler's father), Carol Lockwood (Tyler's mother), Sheriff Forbes (Caroline's mother), and reporter Logan Fell, have come to the conclusion that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls due to the drained bodies, and they must retrieve a pocket watch that belongs to the Gilbert family. In the end, Vicki goes to Jeremy and they go to the bedroom.

While Damon grows weaker from being locked up in the Salvatore basement, Jeremy's and Vicki's relationship grows stronger. At the school organized car wash, Bonnie discovers more about her powers and decides to face with them. Meanwhile, Logan's charm leads to having dinner in the Gilberts' house to charm Jenna, which leads to his stealing the pocket watch. Elena finds out from a stranger that Stefan eerily resembles somebody named Stefan Salvatore he knew in 1953. This leads to Elena questioning who Stefan really is. Elsewhere, Damon uses his connection with Caroline to free himself, kill Zach, and later feeds on Vicki.

Stefan explains his and Damon's past with Katherine to Elena. In 1864, they both loved a woman named Katherine Pierce, who then turned both of them into vampires. Meanwhile, Damon spends the day trapped inside the Salvatore Boarding House with Vicki. They feed off of each other and he changes her into a vampire. Stefan discovers this and attempts to persuade her to die instead of completing the transformation into a vampire by feeding on human blood. Logan uses the pocket watch that tracks down vampires and finds Stefan and Vicki in the woods. Logan shoots Stefan with a wooden bullet, thinking Stefan was attacking Vicki. Damon saves Stefan by attacking Logan. Vicki is overcome by the hunger and feeds on Logan, killing him and completing her transformation. Stefan tells Elena that Vicki has become a vampire, and Elena decides to keep this a secret, but not without ending their relationship.

Stefan tries to help new vampire Vicki deal with her urge to feed, but is unable to control her. While giving Bonnie her witch costume at school, Caroline also gives Bonnie the amber crystal which Damon took from the Founder's Party. At a Halloween party at the school, Vicki attacks both Jeremy and Elena, and Stefan is forced to stake her through the heart, killing her. Stefan swears Elena to secrecy so she won't tell Matt and Jeremy what really happened to Vicki. Elena is unable to console the grieving Jeremy and asks Stefan to use his powers to make sure her brother does not remember what happened. When Stefan tells her he is unsure of it working effectively, Damon volunteers to "take away his suffering".

An old vampire friend of Stefan's arrives in Mystic Falls, the 350-year-old Lexi. She makes Elena realize the value of love, and helps her to take the first step towards renewing a relationship with Stefan. Meanwhile, Jeremy stops doing drugs and putting off homework after Damon alters his memory of Vicki's death. Elena asks Damon if there is anything else that he did to her brother but all Damon says is that he "removed the suffering". Damon gives a box of vervain to Sheriff Forbes and she reveals to him all of the vampire hunters in town... unaware about his true nature. Damon frames Lexi for the death of a local boy by altering his girlfriend's memory and changing her testimony. The police apprehend Lexi. Outside the bar, Damon stakes Lexi and kills her before she can attack the sheriff or reveal his secret. Stefan is furious about what has been done to Lexi and tells Elena that she was right by ending things with him, then he takes off and attacks Damon, but stops short of killing him. He spares Damon's life to repay Damon for saving him from Logan. While wearing the amber crystal Bonnie has a nightmare and she wakes up in a cemetery.

A new history teacher arrives, named Alaric Saltzman, to replace Mr. Tanner. Jeremy notices his ring, which resembles one worn by vampires. Jeremy introduces his new teacher to Jenna, who then becomes infatuated with Alaric. Alaric asks Jenna to invite him into her home, but she refuses after realizing Jeremy is there. When Bonnie is having dreams about her wiccan ancestor Emily, the girls decide to hold a séance, enabling Emily to possess Bonnie. Meanwhile, Damon reveals the reason he really came back to Mystic Falls: to resurrect Katherine with the help of the crystal that Katherine gave to Emily on her last day when she was alive. Stefan tries to stop Damon, knowing that it'll cause a disaster in Mystic Falls due to the fact that all the vampires held in old Fell's Church were burned to death by the townspeople, and that they would take their revenge on an innocent generation of townspeople. On her way to the ruins of old Fell's Church, Damon greets Emily and reminds her about the deal they made a century and a half ago. Damon will protect Emily's line and Emily will protect Katherine. Damon goes for the crystal, and Emily uses her power to throw him up to the branch of a tree. Then Emily performs the ritual to destroy the crystal and thwarts Damon's plan. Emily releases Bonnie from possession. Furious, Damon attacks Bonnie, but Stefan saves her by making her drink his blood. Bonnie is frightened of Stefan until Elena reveals everything to her. Matt continues to be there for Caroline when she needs it. Logan returns into the picture as a vampire instead of a corpse at Elena's house, and he tries to get Jenna to invite him in.

Jeremy decides to return to his hobby of sketching fantasy creatures that he had stopped upon the death of his parents. Meanwhile, the vampire Logan attacks and kills several people throughout the town. Matt and Caroline continue to hang out together. He tells Tyler that he likes hanging out with Caroline. Sheriff Forbes tells Damon of a new recent attack, and he discovers Logan doesn't know who turned him. Alaric helps with a small dispute among Jeremy, Tyler and Mayor Lockwood. Logan kidnaps Caroline after a dispute with the sheriff, but Stefan and Damon save her. Logan tells Damon he knows of another way to resurrect Katherine. Elsewhere, Elena tells Stefan that she loves him and he decides to stay in Mystic Falls. Stefan and Elena then sleep together. But when Stefan goes to get a drink for Elena, she discovers the photo of Katherine and leaves his house abruptly, leaving her vervain necklace behind with the photo. Alaric confronts Logan and tells him to leave Jenna alone. Logan tries to attack him, but gets staked and dies. Elena is involved in a car crash while trying to avoid a man in the middle of the road, but realizes that the man is more than human. The last shot is of the stranger approaching the car and Elena screaming.

Damon's arrival causes the mysterious stranger to flee, and Damon frees Elena from her overturned car. Damon brings Elena with him to Georgia to see Bree, a witch and an old flame of Damon's, hoping she can help open the tomb to free Katherine. Bree calls Lee, Lexi's boyfriend (as Lexi was her friend), who wants revenge on Damon for killing Lexi. Elena saves Damon, and he kills Bree after she tells him to find Emily's spellbook. Back in Mystic Falls, Stefan opens up to Bonnie's grandmother in an attempt to help Bonnie come to terms with her new powers. Meanwhile, Jeremy meets Anna, a young woman who knows the true past of Mystic Falls. When Elena and Damon return, Stefan reveals that he saved Elena from the crash that killed her parents. Stefan also tells Elena that her parents adopted her, but knows nothing more about her parentage. He claims his love to Elena and she forgives him. Also, Alaric sits at the Mystic Grill bar and recognizes Damon as the vampire who killed his wife.

As Stefan and Damon try to figure out the identity of the new vampire in town, Stefan gives Elena more vervain-filled jewelry to protect her family and friends. Strapped for money, Matt takes a job as a busboy at the Mystic Grill, where former high school football-star Ben works as a bartender. Ben comes to Bonnie’s aid when he notices Damon is bothering her. Damon and Stefan accompany Elena to a school dance with a 1950's theme, where Alaric introduces himself to Damon. The vampire that has been stalking Elena is killed by Stefan and Damon. Before dying, he reveals that the way to get into the tomb lies in the Gilbert's journal. While Jenna and Alaric are walking home from the party, Alaric tells Jenna that his wife was named Isobel, the same name as Elena's birth mother. Meanwhile, Anna keeps on trying to get close to Jeremy, because she wants to get her hands on his ancestor's journal. At the end, it is revealed that both Anna and Ben are vampires and appear to be romantically involved with each other.

The episode begins with Katherine and Damon in 1864. Katherine stops a carriage and attacks and feeds on the people in it. Katherine and Damon kiss. The scene fades to Damon interrupting Elena and Stefan in bed. Damon reminds them he can be trusted and then leaves. The scene fades to Damon and Katherine in 1864. In flashbacks, Stefan and Damon recall the long-ago actions taken by townspeople, including their father, Giuseppe Salvatore, leading to the devastating events that caused the rift in their relationship. In the present, Bonnie’s date with Ben takes a frightening turn when she discovers Ben is a vampire and she is kidnapped. Elena helps Stefan as he and Damon race to find the missing journal that belonged to Elena’s ancestor. Stefan learns the reason behind Alaric’s interest in both the journal and the town’s history and that the way into the tomb is in the Grimoire. Although Anna steals the journal before Stefan could take it from Alaric, Stefan got a photocopy of the journal that Alaric had made. Stefan and Elena go to Giuseppe Salvatore's grave to find Emily's spell book. Jeremy's friend Anna is revealed to be the daughter of Pearl, one of the vampires trapped in the tomb beneath the ruins of old Fell's Church. Damon takes the journal from her and goes to his father's grave. Damon finds Elena and Stefan there after they dig the Grimoire up from his father's grave. Damon takes the book. Stefan brings Elena home and goes down stairs to get her some aspirin. He then learns that Jeremy has Anna over. Stefan recognizes the name and he runs upstairs to find Elena gone.

Elena wakes to find that she and Bonnie have been kidnapped by Anna and Ben. Stefan has been trying to find her and asks Damon for help, but he refuses. With help from Grams, Stefan eventually saves Elena and Bonnie. Stefan later ends up killing Ben for not obeying his order to leave town. Meanwhile, Jeremy asks Anna to a party in the woods, unaware that she has her own reasons for wanting to meet him there. With the help of Bonnie and Grams, the tomb is opened and Damon realizes that Katherine is not inside. Anna enters the tomb to find her mother Pearl and helps her escape by having her feed on Elena's blood. Stefan warns Damon that the seal of the tomb has only been temporarily broken, and Elena helps them both escape in order to not be sealed in forever. Out of the tomb, Elena sees how upset Damon is and comforts him. Damon afterward confronts Anna and Pearl, and learns that a smitten church guard had let Katherine go, and she was never inside the tomb. Anna admits to having seen Katherine in Chicago in 1983, but she was indifferent regarding Damon. At home, Bonnie checks on Grams, but finds that she has died from the strain back at the tomb. The episode ends with one of the vampires escaping from the tomb.

At this point Bonnie leaves town, unable to handle her grief.

Harper, the vampire who escaped from the tomb, kills a man in the woods and steals his clothes. Matt and Caroline are surprised by the sudden reappearance of Matt’s drifter mother Kelly. Stefan and Elena are worried about Damon’s new attitude. Meanwhile, Damon is asked by Sheriff Forbes to take part in a fund-raising bachelor auction and asks the Sheriff for information on Alaric. Alaric discovers that his wife Isobel was Elena's biological mother, and was turned into a vampire by Damon at her own request. He confronts Damon, and the confrontation ends when Damon stabs Alaric to death with a stake. However, Alaric comes back to life, saved by a mysterious ring that Isobel gave him. Elena is determined to find out everything she can about her birth mother, but encounters warnings -- possibly from Isobel herself -- to stay away. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Harper will be staying with Anna and Pearl.

Anna pays a visit to Damon, bringing along her mother Pearl, who wants to take control of the town. All the vampires in the tomb have been released, and most are staying at an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Pearl offers to help Damon find Katherine if he helps her out, but the visit turns violent when he turns her down. Meanwhile, Anna arrives unexpectedly at Jeremy's house. Jeremy cuts his hand to tempt Anna, who then sucks his blood, but is interrupted by Jenna. Elena, Stefan, Caroline, and Matt go on an awkward double date to Mystic Grill where Frederick, a now-freed vampire from the tomb, mistakes Elena for Katherine. Kelly, Jenna, and Damon have some drinks at the bar, but Jenna leaves when things start heating up between Damon and Kelly. Frederick and his girlfriend Bethanne, who blame the Salvatore brothers for their entombment, break into the boarding house and attack Stefan and Damon. Stefan stakes Bethanne, but Frederick escapes and returns to the farmhouse, where Pearl punishes him for leaving the house against her orders. At the end, Anna sneaks into Jeremy's room and chastises him for cutting himself in front of her to reveal her secret, but Jeremy insists that he did it because he wants her to turn him.

A great storm approaches Mystic Falls, blocking out rays from the sun and making the roads dangerous. Jeremy keeps trying to convince Anna to turn him, but she refuses. While out hunting, Stefan is captured by Frederic and his friends, who intend to torture him before killing him. Damon goes to the house, realizing he cannot get in because the owner of the house has been compelled not to invite him in. Damon and Elena therefore convince Alaric to work with them to help Stefan. Damon, however, will not allow Elena to come into the house with them. Pearl meets Mayor Lockwood in the Mystic Grill. Meanwhile, Matt is angry with his mother Kelly, but is fearful of pressuring her too much, afraid that she may leave again. Alaric enters the vampire house under the pretext of borrowing the phone. Damon kills the human living in the house, thus enabling him to enter. After her car breaks down in the storm, Caroline discovers the remains of Vicki Donovan in the woods. Matt and Kelly are heartbroken by the news. Damon and Elena rescue Stefan, but a fight erupts in which Damon and Alaric kill most of the vampires. Frederick comes after Elena and Stefan, wounding Stefan badly. Elena has to feed Stefan her blood to revive him. Stefan briefly loses control of himself. Anna agrees to turn Jeremy, but she then figures out (and he does not deny) that the real reason he wanted to be turned was to be with Vicki, whom he now knows to be dead. Damon discovers that Stefan has lost control of his bloodlust, drinking large amounts of human blood from Damon's stores of IV bags.

As Stefan struggles to maintain control of his new circumstances, Elena and Jeremy's uncle, John Gilbert, unexpectedly shows up in Mystic Falls. Stefan exhibits some unusual behavior at the Founder's Day event, and things turn ugly when Damon tries to find out why John Gilbert has returned. Meanwhile, Matt and Tyler find themselves in conflict after an incident at the party when Matt sees his mother making out with Tyler, which leads to a brutal fistfight between Matt and Tyler in front of the assembled guests. Afterward, Tyler's father angrily hits Tyler for letting him lose his temper, and Matt orders Kelly to move out. Elsewhere, Elena is unable to comfort Jeremy without revealing her knowledge of vampires which causes him to take action when he decides to sneak a look at her diary.

Meanwhile, in the future, someone uses another witch ( although not as powerful as Bonnie ) to send themself into the past so they can change the past. Bonnie sees this in a vision, and sends her and Damon's daughter Caprice back to the past as well to stop the person from changing the past. After all, if she or Damon went someone would soon find out doubles are running around, and that would change the past itself.

Back to the present - At this point the Founder's Day Gala is about to begin, along with the Miss Mystic Falls Pagent. This is where our story begins.