Dr. Joel Fleischman arrives in Anchorage, Alaska to fulfill his part of a bargain that paid $125,000 for his medical education in exchange for service in the state as a doctor. Sure, it'll be tough for a guy from New York to adjust to Anchorage, but... then he learns Anchorage doesn't need him, and he's been assigned to Cicely, a small remote town owned and dominated by the strong minded Maurice Minnifield, a former astronaut set on developing his little part of Alaska into a vacation paradise and equally decided to make Fleischman honor his professional obligations.
Ed asks Dr. Fleischman to help him convince his uncle, a traditional tribal medicine man, to seek medical treatment for a health problem. A self-reliant Maggie chides Joel about being helpless around the house. Chris angers Maurice when he reads some poetry by Walt Whitman and uncovers some facts about the poet's life that Maurice would prefer not knowing.
A hermit takes Joel's advice to put his affairs in order and leaves all his considerable land holdings to be jointly administered by Maggie and the good doctor, who has definite ideas about how to dispose of the windfall.
Joel's mind is on helping Maurice sell Alaska as the "new Riviera" to two Japanese businessmen in hopes of becoming the "attending physician"--and playing golf--at their proposed resort. Meanwhile, Holling has proposed to Shelly when he learns that she is carrying his child, when the wedding day arrives, he is somewhat reluctant to go through with ceremony.
A virulent strain of flu, whose only treatment is a smelly Indian concoction brewed up by Marilyn, keeps Joel from enjoying a visit by Elaine, his New York fiancée who is developing a friendship with Maggie.
A young man from Saskatchewan further rocks the already delicate relationship between Shelly and Holling. Ed suffers from writer's block and a lack of focus as he tries to begin work on his blockbuster movie. Maggie and Rick tiptoe around "Maggie's curse" when he shows symptoms of a serious medical problem.
Maurice feels his mortality after his brother dies, and decides to adopt Chris as the Minnifield heir, but the title doesn't sit well on the younger man. Shelly distracts Holling when she tags along on a journey to capture an elusive bear on film. Joel is irritated when Maggie takes over the childbirth class he's disdained and makes a success of it.
The approach of the Aurora Borealis and the constant light produces some strange behavior among the residents of Cicely. Chris abandons the radio station to build an unusual piece of modern sculpture and to get acquainted with a new soul mate that has come into town on some predestined mission. Joel journeys into the back woods to visit an isolated forest ranger and, when he gets stuck coming home, remembers the stories of a strange Bigfoot-like creature named Adam rumored to be roaming the area. Joel is rescued by Adam, who turns out to be real and a damn good cook, only when he returns to town no one believes him.
Joel receives a "Dear John" letter from Elaine, who has decided to marry an older judge, and a concerned Ed enlists Maggie to help him deal with it. Holling regrets buying a satellite dish for Shelly, who soon develops into an international television junkie.
Ed's wish to know who his parents were summons up a 256-year-old Indian spirit named "One-Who-Waits" who offers to help him find out. Chris finds his voice has been stolen by a beautiful woman passing through town, and comes to believe in a folk cure he hears about-that he must sleep with the most beautiful woman in town, Maggie.
Holling decides to be circumcised to please Shelly, Chris and Maurice organize the town to keep watch over an anonymous man whom died in Dr. Fleischman's office, and Maggie persuades Joel to pose as her boyfriend to please her father.
Joel's plans for a vacation to New York are sidetracked by Maggie's dreams about his death in an airplane crash and his suspicions about the enthusiastic doctor sent to temporarily replace him. Maurice's annual visit from an astronaut "groupie" is interrupted by his sleeping problems.
Things get a little crazy as the town waits for the annual ice breakup and the annual "running of the bulls" down the streets of Cicely. Joel and Maggie find themselves irresistibly drawn together, Maurice is attracted to a dominating state trooper sent to uncover the villain behind the annual rash of petty thefts and Holling challenges all the customers to a fight.
A Soviet celebrity returns to Cicely for some relaxation, some borscht and a deadly serious chess match with rival Maurice. Holling suffers a bout of torturous dreams and Chris helps Ed win the heart of a farm girl with his erotic imagery of a motorcycle.
The infamous O'Connell curse seems to have claimed another victim when a falling satellite hits Rick. Maurice has mixed feelings about selling some property for an outrageously high price to a couple he disapproves of, and Shelly becomes confused when Holling is really enjoying his reunion with an old lady friend from his distant past.
Maggie is devastated when the unveiling of a statue in Rick's memory uncovers his life and loves away from Cicely. Maurice stumbles in his pursuit of Officer Semanski when she learns he favors tax loopholes. Joel is kidnapped and held prisoner by the reclusive Adam and his hypochondriacal mate Eve.
Maurice sulks over what he believes is an unflattering photo taken by Holling, Maggie worries about needing glasses and getting old, and Joel tries to explain Chris' uncanny appeal to women, who is busy chasing the one woman immune to his charm.
Maggie and Joel are forced to rough it when her plane is forced down by mechanical problems, and Shelly receives a visit from her former best friend, who is seeking a divorce for her boyfriend, Shelly's husband back in Saskatchewan.
Maggie becomes convinced that the stray dog that's adopted her is Rick reincarnated. Maurice tries to convince Marilyn to join him in a multi-million dollar scheme to produce and market ostriches. Ed looks for help in making a movie about Cicely.
On Halloween Joel hits his head, presaging a visit from his twin brother Jules. Chris and Ed set out to meet a criminal from Chris' hometown in West Virginia, and Holling pays an old debt.
Chris' discovery of the frozen body of a Napoleonic Frenchman raises many questions for Joel, has Maurice dreaming of the economic benefits for Cicely, Shelly worrying over fertility and Holling confessing over his despicable ancestors.
Joel's former fiancé Elaine, now a widow, comes to visit. Chris' half-brother Bernard returns just as Chris is having dreams of Africa. The reclusive Adam takes a job with Holling to pay his insurance premiums.
Joel decides to explore the fascination of hunting by accompanying Chris and Holling on their annual pilgrimage. Ed becomes worried and over solicitous when he learns that Ruth-Anne is seventy-five years old.
A stranded bus of carnival performers brings romance to Marilyn, doubts about her future to Maggie, the mysteries of magic to Chris, and a break to the studious Joel; Shelly however, is pained when Holling becomes fixated on her large feet.
The holidays in Cicely see Joel experimenting with an unfamiliar Christmas tree, a clumsy Maggie suddenly left alone, Shelly pining for the religious pageantry of her childhood, and Maurice meeting a family he never knew as everyone awaits the pageant of the raven.
Maurice hires a colorful but questionable new investigative reporter for his newspaper, Maggie tries to enlighten Joel about the "talking" trees, and Chris becomes a co-owner of the Brick when Holling needs money to pay an unexpected tax bill.
Joel agrees, under pressure from Marilyn, to be adopted by a grateful village elder, but wonders if he'll survive. Maggie becomes concerned when Holling shuts down the Brick while Shelly's away, ostensibly to wax the floors.
The death of his uncle sends Holling out to his still and into an orgy of self-doubt, Joel feels isolated as he searches for proof of other Jews in Alaska, and Ed widens his own horizons when he films Ira Wingfeather producing his unique wooden flutes.
Maggie receives an unexpected visit and some unwanted news from her mother. Meanwhile, Chris searches everywhere for just the right cow to fling for his conceptual art piece and Joel becomes obsessed with a local chimney sweep that he believes is a former pro golfer.
The mayoral incumbent, Holling, faces opposition from an old friend with a long memory. Chris grows eloquent over the democratic process. Ed worries over casting his first vote. Election commissioners Joel and Maggie argue over the décor of the polling place.
The death of an old friend sends Maurice and Holling packing off into the snowy wilderness to bury him at No-Name Point. But the way is hard, including an unexpected run-in with the man's attractive widow.
The hypochondriac, Eve comes to town to ask about her latest symptoms, but Joel is preoccupied with the ghost of a lonely old soul haunting his cabin. Maurice receives a visit from his old Army commander, who needs to borrow money.
An abandoned baby gets attention from the whole town and helps awaken Adam's paternal instincts while Shelly's life is unsettled by a visit from her youthful, giddy mother and her new boy friend.
As spring blossoms, Shelly suffers from a skin rash, Holling gives away eggs, Joel gets a new outlook on patient care from a tribal medicine man and Maggie experiences a spiritual and physical re-awakening with a handsome stranger.
Maurice becomes curious about the influx of Japanese tourists to the area during the Northern Lights, Holling sets out to discover if Jesse the bear is really dead, and Maggie leads the curious townspeople in trying to discover what is in a mysterious package covered with foreign stamps.
Joel foresees sophisticated delights when he travels to Juneau for a medical conference but winds up with good old Maggie, meanwhile back in Cicely, Chris finds himself tongue-tied with the return of Bernard, his cosmic doppelganger.
As their wedding approaches, Adam debates with Joel about women and Eve lets a gung-ho Shelly take over the wedding plans as she worries about more important matters. Maggie and Joel try in their own ways to come to grips with their experience in Juneau.
Joel meets an old man who's returned to Cicely after many years. The man tells him the story of two remarkable women, Roslyn and Cicely, whom transformed the town into "the Paris of the North" back in 1909.
Maggie must come to grips with her 30th birthday and the ghosts of her dead boyfriends by using an Indian ritual allowing her to lay the past to rest. Marilyn decides it's time to learn to drive and gets Ruth-Anne and Chris to give her lessons. Maurice drives the citizens crazy when he begins to write his memoirs.
Joel is charged with energy as the sun hasn't set and he uses his pent up energy to try to coach Cicely's basketball team to victory. Holling is distracted by Shelly's cheerleading outfit. The traveling salesman/tailor comes back to Cicely to sell his wares and he romances Ruth-Anne.
Chris kills a pet loving mathematician's dog; he falls in love with her and then while taking care of the rest of her pets, a parakeet drops dead. Maurice takes delivery of a clock he paid top dollar for and is delivered with the guy who will set it up. He becomes less than enamored with it when it doesn't keep the perfect time he expected.
A heavy metal rock star comes to Cicely and gets Ed to make a documentary on a rock festival he is holding with local Indian drummers. Shelly is star struck by the arrival of this star. Meanwhile Chris' mentor, Tooley, comes to Cicely in a crate and Chris ponders how to eulogize, bury and send him to the great beyond.
Cicely's newest resident, Mike Monroe, is confined to live in a plastic bubble because of M.C.S. (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity), which makes him allergic to nearly everything manufactured in the twentieth century. After Maggie meets Mike she becomes interested in him. Ruth-Anne's son Matthew, the investment banker, comes to Cicely to try to get away from it all when he is fired from his job. Maurice's prospectus on making Cicely a place for sick people to move to and recover from their illnesses draws Matthew back into thinking about money.
The ever-quiet Bob returns to Cicely, with "The New Perception Players" and still hopes to win Marilyn's affection. Maurice receives a package from his son and it reminds him that he needs to adjust his will to cover his Korean offspring. Maggie tries to develop her relationship with Mike, by helping him with the revisions to Maurice's will. Ed is suffering from a creativity block and finds a ring with the initials F.F. engraved on the inside, and then he begins to have Fellini-like visions.
Holling's less than honest daughter arrives in Cicely and begins to operate. Holling and Shelly have a disagreement about his "sterility" and starts hanging out with his daughter. Marilyn decides it may be time to move out when she decides her mother has made one too many changes she doesn't like and asks Maggie to find her dream house. Ed goes to meet "Princess," a crane that returns every year, though after taking with Chris he begins to think it isn't such a good idea.
The Indians in Cicely celebrate Thanksgiving by throwing tomatoes at white people. Joel is Ed's first victim and he is angered because in his words he is "definitely not white." The town gets decorated with skulls and pumpkins as they also celebrate "The Day of the Dead." Joel also gets bad news in a letter telling him that he must serve another year on his contract. Mike's latest reactions to the environment are caused by something he can't trace so he thinks about moving to Greenland. Chris waxes nostalgic and decides that the something missing from his life is "the joint" when he finds a can of beans that he remembers from Thanksgiving.
An ex-Soviet member of their state security comes to Maurice and offers to sell him the file of all the information they have in his dossier. Maurice is discomforted by the fact that the information in the file is legitimate and shows things about the past he would prefer not knowing, like the fact he may have divulged top secret information. Maggie is reminded of her mortality when a pilot is killed making a flight she was supposed to make. The health inspector comes to inspect "The Brick" and besides finding many violations is interested in Shelly. Maggie decides to be positive to everyone, including Joel, to the point where is begins to affect her health. The ex-Soviet tries to sell other items of interest as barter for goods & services.
Chris is taken into custody for an extradition trial to bring him back to West Virginia, where he currently has a parole violation. Chris knows he is guilty and really isn't interested in his defense. Mike comes up with an angle that he can prove to the judge that the Chris Stevens that skipped bail is different from the Chris Stevens standing before her.
Ed becomes gloomy about the future and begins to share Mike's visions about the future. Maggie digs up some artifacts from an ancient female in her front yard and Maurice wants to turn it into a major excavation. A young boy who runs away from a survival camp gets a job at "The Brick" to cover his room and board; he also falls madly in love with Shelly. Maggie and the rest of the women band together against the men who have dominated the dig in her front yard.
Ruth-Anne pays off her store which gives her great satisfaction and Maurice's great pain; however, Ed feels the most pain when these two old friends begin to fight after she begins to change the store and he finds himself caught in the middle. Chris goes to religious retreat to become a monk for a couple weeks. He thinks he has a problem when really feels an attraction for one of the other monks. Joel is going stir crazy when no one in town has sick for two weeks.
One-Who-Waits returns and has positive information on the location of Ed's father and takes Ed to the construction site where he works. Ed gets a job and tries to come up with a way to tell the foreman that he is his father. Mike asks Maggie to fly to a mountain range where he thinks he will be able to identify the chemicals that were part of a container spill. A blind man comes into "The Brick" and offers to tune and rebuild the piano but begins to get on Holling's nerves. Maggie tries to hold off Mike's advances by telling him about her "curse."
Joel accompanies Maggie as her "boyfriend," in a trip to back to Michigan, where he has been promised tickets to a Knicks - Pistons game. Maggie goes to attend her grandmother's 80th birthday party; for the event, "Grammy" has locked herself in the upstairs bathroom and Maggie is the only one allowed access.
Holling decides to go back to school to get his high school equivalency certificate. Marilyn goes on an adventure in Seattle and Joel is worried for her safety so he tries to over plan her trip for her, plans she just ignores. A worried Joel, ventures down to Seattle to locate her. Maggie is at odds with the teacher over her philosophy about female combat pilots and sisterhood.
After breaking his nose, twice, Joel and Maggie have a wild fling in her barn. Chris saves Maurice's life, a debt that he is set on repaying. After witnessing that event and surrounded by psychic instability, Ed thinks about death in its many forms. A shepherd's flock wanders into town and he talk to the locals about his problems, Ruth-Anne thinks he is having a mid-career crisis.
Maggie forgets about having sex with Joel. Holling and Ruth-Anne go out to find a Siberian Tit, a bird rarely seen in Alaska. Ed's uncle arranges a marriage for Ed; however the bride already has a boyfriend.
Joel goes on strike when the state of Alaska will not allow him time off for a Caribbean vacation he was planning. Chris has trouble seeking inspiration for his new sculpture. A vagrant's presence on Main St. outrages Maurice, when he learns the man is an ex-marine he tries to become his benefactor. Maggie debates about having sex with Mike. Holling spends his time in hibernation. The town of Cicely strikes back against Joel.
A totem pole carved in tribute to the Raven clan reopens a bitter rift between them and the Bear clan. Shelly gets medical advice telling her that getting married may help her to get rid of the strange hallucinations with dancers that she's been having. Joel confronts Maggie about their "whatever" and her relationship with Mike; together they decide they're "mutually desirous incompatibles."
Maggie is excited when she thinks she has "cured" her latest beau, as opposed to killing him; however she is crushed when he tells her that he leaving to work for Greenpeace in Murmansk. Holling is disgusted by Shelly's redecorating of their bed & bathroom. Maurice moves his childhood home to Cicely and it stirs up memories of his brother.
When Maggie distributes the invitations for Maurice's 25th Anniversary Bash for Minnifield Communications an event "everyone" is attending Joel doesn't get one. Shelly accidentally breaks one of Maurice's expensive bottles of wine and tries to find a way to replace it. Adam and Eve return with the baby, Aldrich, and Adam takes over the food preparation of a special dish.
Joel seeks out other Jews to help him mourn his uncle and Maurice calls out the troops to go out and round some up. Chris gets Bernard to help settle a 150-year-old feud between the Millers and the Stevens; something Bernard has some trepidation about participating in especially since it involves fighting, something he's never done. Marilyn drafts Holling to be her partner in a Cajun dance contest.
Spring comes to Cicely and Holling pays to get a job on a farm pulling a plow, because of his wish to sow seeds. Maggie saves Dave's life, a tape from Mike and other events get the people of Cicely thinking that she has healing powers. Maurice buys a pig for routing out truffles for the annual Mosquito Festival, but the pig may become the main course at a luau. Holling throws his back out and Shelly finds out that she is pregnant.
Maurice's son comes to ask for his permission on his choice of a bride. There is a little hitch, Ron thinks that the new bride maybe the daughter of North Korean Colonel Pak Soon Ye, the butcher of Yang Dok. To help in the preservation of his native tongue, Ed decides to dub The Prisoner of Zenda. Holling's "needs" (an average of 4 times a day) are being held back and he seeks a way to relieve them. Ed runs into trouble with the star of his movie, a man with experience working in Hollywood and no time for Ed's inexperience. Maurice runs into mixed emotions on his feelings about his own personal feelings and the feelings of his son.
The town's oldest tree is dying. Shelly wakes up and finds that she can't talk, but she can sing. The town asks Joel to diagnose Old Vicki. Chris goes wireless and is freed from the confines of the broadcast booth. Shelly's singing starts to get on Holling's nerves. Maggie tries to be pleasant to Joel and the result of all this kindness is that Joel keeps getting injured. Maurice is intent on bringing the tree down. Shelly becomes worried that she may never talk again. After the felling of Old Vicki, the town has a wake. Maurice feels remorse after the felling of Old Vicki. Maggie and Joel cut a deal to try keeping Joel injury free.
Ed wakes up in strange places with no clues about how he got there. Joel contracts "glacier dropsy" which gives him the feeling of pins pricking his nose, a fear of shrimp, a tender groin and other strange symptoms. Shelly loses her singing voice just when she needs it. Leonard treats Joel's patients and Ed's "sleep flying" which maybe and indication of a greater purpose.
Maggie investigates the owners of an antique shop who are exhibiting strange behavior. Maurice begins to see the signs of age when he is called a senior citizen, meets old friends who've seen better days, and has a mild heart attack. Joel discovers that a Yiddish word is in the local Indian language and that a Jewish man may have had an influence in Alaska two hundred years before.
Maurice is chosen to be a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's, in London, for their rugged individualist's exhibit. Chris is faced with having to live longer than he planned on, a consequence he has trouble dealing with. The dentist comes to town, which puts everyone on edge.
Bernard is surprised when he discovers his new love once lived with Chris for 6 months. Joel starts to fear that he is losing his New York edge. Marilyn screens her potential dates via their medical records.
Maggie is asked by the three guys in Cicely's high school senior class to be their homecoming queen and she accepts. Ruth-Anne faces an IRS auditor who besides trying to figure out her practice of accepting goods and services for payment is undergoing stress from her own marital problems. Maurice tries to outsmart a wealthy American Indian in a land deal. Joel is stuck out in the wilderness without his tape recorder.
Joel's parents come to Cicely and his father's know-it-all attitude gets on Joel's nerves and his mother gets back to nature. Holling's dislike of sports causes Shelly to ponder their baby's athletic future and his stature among the men of Cicely.
Ed hits an impasse in his film career when Maurice has him begin to organize Cicely's first film festival and he can't seem to get things going to Maurice's satisfaction. Joel makes excuses for why he can't join the volunteer fire department and goes on the offensive when his truck bursts into flames and the volunteers are nowhere to be found. Leonard becomes frustrated as he researches the healing properties found in white folklore.
Ed accompanies Leonard on a house call and has success with his first try at being a shaman. Joel teaches a childbirth class which Holling finds amusing and makes Shelly embarrassed and causes another couple to break up. Maggie buys a new washer/dryer combination but regrets it later when she loses the camaraderie of the Laundromat. Ed is visited by a small green man whose purpose is to make him begin to doubt his healing abilities.
Chris suffers an anxiety attack during the written part of the exam, when he decides to become a pilot. Holling and Ruth-Anne's friendship undergoes a strain when a diary that Ed has found shows that his grandfather ate hers during the blizzard of 1897. Joel is in search the thief of forty dollars in petty cash.
As the town prepares for winter, a healthy elderly patient tells Joel she is dying, much to his disbelief. Maggie decides to redecorate her house before winter sets in and gets a new chair that no one seems to like. Holling must figure out how many plots to dig at the cemetery before the ground freezes. Shelly lies to Maurice about never saying she loved him and she thinks her nose has begun to grow because of it.
An agent stops by to see Ed about his idea for "The Shaman" but he wants a few "little" changes made to better sell the script. Chris seeks to discover his feminine side. Joel and Maggie "discuss" motherhood. Shelly flees her baby shower as all the pressures of motherhood begin to show themselves to her, when Eve and others tell their child birthing experiences.
The aurora borealis causes the residents of Cicely to swap their dreams, exposing secrets. Maggie has Holling's dream about being a cab driver in Quebec, driving his overbearing father around. Ron has Maurice's dream about blue pumps. Joel sleepwalks in search of candy, having a child's dream. Holling has Dave's dream about kayaking with a spatula. Walt has someone's dream (Joel's?) about climbing a never ending tower.
A musician tries to stop Maurice from storing, in his safe, a 1.6 million-dollar violin he's just bought as an investment. Maggie becomes obsessed with ridding her house of dust mites after she develops an allergy to them. Chris struggles to find inspiration for his latest sculpture. Joel and Maggie have their first date, which ends early because of talk about things microscopic.
The ranger from up in the fire tower asks for Joel when he is distraught over losing his current job. Joel talks him down, but after 15 years of being alone he needs time to adjust. Adam ruins Maurice's plans for a President's Day fireworks show because the guys running the display are there to "get him." While out on a fishing trip with Chris, Ed is struck by lightning and becomes depressed while thinking about why.
Ruth-Anne and Walt take the long way back home when they pick up a couple of oak display cases; however they run into vehicle trouble. Before giving birth, Shelly goes on a spiritual journey at the Laundromat and meets up with "The Pooper" at different stages of her life. Joel and Maggie get frustrated as they try too hard at making a go of their relationship.
Joel discovers that his friends consider him remiss about entertaining them, so he plans a dinner party; later he worries about potential food poisoning. Holling tells Shelly that he is not a Canadian citizen, which makes her worry about not having national health care for "The Pooper." Chris "comes to realize the power of this thing (microphone)," when a listener kills himself after hearing one of his selections, so he revises the play list. Shelly takes "The Pooper" back to Canada and Holling goes after them.
Ruth-Anne tries learning Italian, so she can read Dante, and gets some help from Shelly. Walt needs sunlight to overcome his depression, so he gets his light glasses and becomes addicted, so Chris & Holling perform an intervention. Caribou block Main Street, so the mayor takes action. While waiting out a storm in the airport cabin with Maggie, everything is going Joel's way, until Ed shows up.
While fishing Joel hooks "Goony," Cicely's fabled sea-monster. Ruth-Anne takes Chris's motorcycle ride when customer demands get to be too much for her, then she joins a middle-aged motorcycle gang for a midnight ride. Holling gives up on his paint-by-numbers after Maurice ridicules his work. Joel meets his Rabbi in the middle of the lake after "Goony" takes him for a ride. The town, especially Maurice, demand action when it appears Ruth-Anne may not be coming back.
Maurice's home catches fire and after it's extinguished there is a danger of asbestos, so he takes some space at Holling and Shelly's place. Later when Holling won't accept any remuneration he becomes outraged. Chris chooses not to shoot a buck when he has an easy shot; he later seeks out the deer again when he receives a bottle of Buckhorn whiskey for his trouble. Joel makes a medical discovery but has no other physicians to share his good news with, so Maggie brings another doctor to town that he can talk shop with.
Ed tells one person about the fact that he saw Ruth-Anne and Walt together and later she tells him about the relationship but doesn't want it to get around so he'd better keep quiet, but it slips out. Maggie hires Maurice to help her with the construction of an ultra-light, but fires him when his meticulous details take the project over. Shelly worries about Holling's relationship with the priest that's come to town to baptize Randi.
Ron and Erick are getting married but the preparations are driving them apart. Holling undercuts another caterer for the wedding reception, but when he realizes the cost of the ingredients, for the dishes they want, he tries a few substitutions. Maggie thinks that Joel's kindness is making her ill. Maurice tries to duck out of the wedding. Marilyn is taking a writing class and keeping a journal, which Joel worries about the content regarding him.
Ted tries to impress Marilyn with the rich client he's just landed and learns what makes them different. Maurice organizes Cicely's 1st International wheelchair race and demands too much from the contestant he is sponsoring. Ed prescribes a remedy for a racer with tennis elbow, but the little green man returns to try to undermine his confidence in his healing abilities.
Though he promotes it on the air, Chris has reservations about making a donation for Maurice's blood drive. Ed discovers his rare blood type is shared by another person in town, so he hires a P.I., Renaldo Pinetree, to dig into her past and find out if she is her mother. Maggie's old "tiller mate" from Grosse Pointe comes to Cicely after her affections and he offers Joel the incentive to leave Cicely for good. Joel loses his touch for drawing blood as Cicely nears the amount Maurice needs to win his bet with a neighboring town.
Joel is the only one awestruck by his discovery of a frozen woolly mammoth. Chris gets reacquainted with a girl whose beauty he remembers from high school; however, when she arrives, all is not as he recalled and she appears to be getting uglier. Maurice has a birthday dinner surprise for Barbara complete with the violin playing of the man who blew up his truck. The next morning he escapes. Joel concedes that he's become a Cicelian.
Joel takes a spiritual journey to New York City after drinking orange juice that contains some Indian folk medicine and sees how life might have been. There he and his wife Shelly, a corporate lawyer, give a dinner party. Maurice is their doorman and Eugene their elevator operator; Maggie is the au pair for their kids; Bernard is in fashions and Chris is an inarticulate fashion photographer; Ed is a corporate raider; Ruth-Anne runs the internal medical partnership that Joel is trying to join; Holling is a singer who's got agoraphobia (fear of open places). Through the course of the evening, they begin to transform into their Cicelian characters.
With Renaldo, Ed participates in an investigation of possible insurance fraud being perpetrated by Hayden Keyes. Maggie & Maurice both regret their donations to the library fund-raising auction. A dollhouse from the auction, Miranda's 1st birthday, and her growth begin to depress Shelly.
Maurice's plans for a fox hunt with his visiting English noblewoman must be put on hold when the fox escapes and gets into the protective custody of Ruth-Anne. Firing Marilyn and his lack of concern for Hayden's well-being are two items that haunt Joel, Dickensian style, during his celebration of Yom Kippur. Meanwhile Holling yearns to make amends for past misdeeds.
A letter Maggie wrote to herself as a teenager makes her re-examine her current life against the ideals she had at fifteen. Shelly ignores a chain letter, and then bad luck falls on the Vincoeur household. A new barber arrives in Cicely and Chris tries to be his friend, but he doesn't want anything to do with an ex-con. A lump is discovered on Joel's head, so he goes to Anchorage and finds out the lump may be malignant, so he starts to live his life to the fullest.
Satan comes to Cicely as a whirlpool salesman; he offers to fulfill Shelly's fantasy of making the Brick a major casino. Ed makes a mistake and skews the results of a cold medicine test that Joel is running for John Hopkins. Chris gets a ventriloquist's dummy and adds him to his radio show, but the dummy becomes more popular, because he "shoots straight from the hip." Maurice is convinced that Joel's cold medicine contains a new appetite suppressant and he presses Joel to tell him what it is. When that doesn't work, he gets Hayden to try to steal the information. To make her fantasy come true, all Shelly must do is burn Holling's old bathrobe.
Ed films Marilyn telling the story of a Russian princess and her grandfather. It seems that Lenin and Anastasia arranged to meet in Cicely to work out an agreement that would reestablish the rule of her family in Russia. Meanwhile, an all-terrain vehicle is being prototyped for the Alaskan frontier.
Maurice welcomes his young cousin Maurice to Cicely, hopefully to take over the family business. Charges of static electricity generate a new interest--and a new art project--for Chris. Meanwhile sparks fly between Joel and Maggie on a Russian airline bound for St. Petersburg, where Joel is scheduled to speak at a medical convention.
Maurice sends Ed after Joel, who's moved up river; and Joel tells Ed of the few days he and Maggie spent together, where every time they got together, there was gunfire. Chris hires a contractor to improve the lot around his trailer and it turns his world upside down. When Walt goes away to check his traps, Ruth-Anne realizes that she's fallen in love and tries to fight it.
A new doctor and his wife move to Cicely to take over Joel's practice and his house. While settling in, they get to know some quirks of the people and their new environment. After eating a trout, Ed starts to see the future. Holling tries to join the "Sons of the Tundra" and Shelly dislikes the "men only" aspect. Joel stops by and trades Holling pelts for a new knife.
Maggie gets elected mayor. Joel invites Phil up river, for a game of golf and a test. Michelle covers Maggie's first city council meeting as mayor and Maggie makes her first motion for a centrally located dumpster but runs into opposition from the fiscal-restraint minded crowd. Maggie's power as mayor becomes a turn on for Chris. Marilyn invests money in a stud dog that doesn't want to mate.
Maggie decides to go and see Joel in the Manonash village after she begins to have visions of him dying. The Capras are having a small get together, but the whole town seems to turn out. Marilyn brings along two friends to the party, and because they're snowed in, they stay with the Capras, whom try to figure out how to get them to leave. Ed's shaman cure for shingles has Phil intrigued, he goes to Ed's to find out the secret but finds Ed's filing system less than perfect. Using a computer, to database these notes, makes Ed afraid.
Marilyn comes to visit an old friend in the community where Joel is living and he begins to revert to his old ways. Maurice leaves Ed in charge of his house and he returns to find Ed has taken over the place. The Vincoeurs are house hunting and make an offer on Semanski's place but only after Holling gets a few little details fixed; but does he really want it?
The state of Alaska admits to Joel that they were wrong in over-extending his contract, with his release secured, Joel returns to Cicely to collect his things. Phil notices there is something wrong with Maurice's new bottled water; the effect causes males and females to reverse roles. Cal escapes and becomes a fugitive in search of an audience. The area where Joel goes does not contain a village named Greenwich.
When Maggie's mother and her male friend, whom dies, come to visit, she realizes that her luck with men runs in the family. Maurice becomes jealous of Holling's friendship with Phil. Ruth-Anne and Walt's relationship is put to the test, when she has him help her out in the store.
Joel finds a map and brings Maggie with him on a quest to find a mythical city, they meet a belligerent gatekeeper, and when faced with a crossroads, Joel sees his future and departs. Phil cleans out some impacted earwax for Chris, but Chris sues him for malpractice when his inner ear is damaged. Maurice lets Holling know that Michelle is writing an article on restaurants for Alaska Highways magazine, but she can't find any good words to describe the food at the Brick.
The citizens get ready to celebrate founders' day; Chris and Maggie open an old garage and uncover Roslyn and Cicely's old Model T. While rebuilding the car, Chris starts to show an interest in Maggie. Maurice believes that Miranda is the reincarnation of his uncle, so he "plans to take a personal interest in her." The Capras look at their financial situation when they wish to build a house on land they've bought. Phil has a major anxiety attack, resulting from the onslaught of nature, and he tries to get Maurice to buy back the property. Michelle's wish to be different nearly gets her frostbite, when she decides to not wear the anonymous gifts she's received.
Maggie outbids Maurice for the ownership of the town's rundown theater, which she begins to run with help of Ed and Heather. Two professors come to Cicely for the oral examination for Chris' master's degree; instead they clash over Chris' dissertation. A young Canadian Air Force lieutenant claims that Holling is his father, something proven because Holling sent his mother money every month for 25 years; however, that is just covering up a secret from his past. The theatre business causes stress for Maggie.
Ruth-Anne makes her debut on National Public Radio telling about little slices of life from Cicely. The Capras go to Cicely's Little Italy, where it turns out there is an exclusive restaurant in the basement of a house and a feud with the people next door and they get caught in the middle. Maggie in her role as mayor must play marriage counselor for Shelly and Holling.
Ed resents Maurice's advice about his relationship with Heather. Chris believes that Maggie needs a new bowling partner, so he holds tryouts and gets the wooly mammoth professor to be her partner. Michelle's success at bowling threatens Phil, they fight about it and she moves out. Chris becomes jealous of Maggie's new partner. Lester's wants to produce Ed's script for "The Shaman" with one change that makes Ed think about what Maurice said to him. Michelle moves out of the house.
Michelle decides to mount a stage production of "Bus Stop" unaware of the curse that has plague past stage productions. Ron helps guarantee that Erick gets a coveted role and Shelly is jealous when Maggie gets the female lead. Hayden designs the sets and a stage with a trap door. Holling, Erick and Chris all have issues to deal with about their parts in the play, which they discuss while drinking out at Holling's still.
Ed learns the responsibilities of parenthood when he begins caring for a lost bear cub. Maurice discovers that Cicely's population is declining. Chris uses a device that allows him to manipulate his dreams and work out some issues in his relationship with Maggie. Michelle waitresses at the Brick while continuing to work out her issues with Phil.
Chris begins taking dance lessons from Marilyn, but she disciplines one of her other students into giving him the lessons only she doesn't want to be seen talking to him, even though they have similar interests. Philip offends Marilyn's mother when he breaks tribal protocols for manners and Michelle confirms his deficiency. Maurice and Barbara travel on a prisoner transport with Cal the violinist to bring him back to the sanitarium; however, along the way she falls under the spell of his violin playing causing her to think about violating the rules and letting him go free.
Maurice's plans to ask Barbara to marry him while spending the weekend at his new summer home are in jeopardy when her style clashes with the way he wants his guests treated. Phil and Michelle continue to try to work out their differences and Ed (in his Shaman capacity) and Joel's Rabbi offer some advice. Chris is on the loose when Maggie doesn't make the journey to Maurice's but soon realizes that he is a changed man. The Vincoeurs stay locked up in their room when Holling is in heat.
Darren Burrows returns to locations where Northern Exposure was shot as well as visiting surviving cast members.
