Inara attends a formal society dance, only to find Malcolm there as well, attempting to set up a smuggling job. Mal argues with Inara's date and finds himself in a duel with a renowned swordsman
The crew of Serenity takes on a train heist commissioned by a crime lord. They steal the goods, only to find it is medicine that is desperately needed by the town.
The crew has a job in a town where Jayne once robbed the magistrate but dropped the stolen money, making him a local folk hero, and a target for the local boss.
Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.
The crew comes to the aid of a brothel when its madam, an old acquaintance of Inara, asks for help after a gunslinger claims a prostitute's baby is his and takes it because his wife is barren.
After Serenity suffers a catastrophe that leaves her crew with only hours of oxygen, flashbacks show how Mal and Zoe acquired Serenity and assembled their motley crew.
Malcolm Reynolds, a veteran and the captain of Serenity, is smuggling goods alongside his crew but they also need to pick up some passengers for extra money. However, not all is as it seems.
While visiting an outlying planet, Simon and River are kidnapped by local villagers in need of a doctor. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew are forced to seek medical help from an unlikely source when one of their own is shot.
Crime lord Niska finally gets his revenge on Mal when his men find him and Wash on a planet. Meanwhile, Zoe and the crew decide to mount a daring rescue to get their friends back.
A bounty hunter named Jubal Early sneaks aboard Serenity hoping to capture River for an enormous reward. Simon is taken captive but River is nowhere to be found.