The Enterprise, under Captain Jonathan Archer, sets off on its maiden voyage with a mission to return a wounded Klingon to his people.

The Enterprise crew is dispatched by Starfleet Command to assist Fortunate, a human freight vessel that has been attacked by Nausicaan pirates. On arriving, they are surprised to find that Fortunate's crew is resistant to Archer's efforts to help them and determined to seek revenge against their attackers, no matter the repercussions.

Archer and the crew are disappointed to discover that T'Pol has been ordered by the Vulcan High Command to leave Enterprise--and equally frustrated at her seeming indifference to leaving their ranks. T'Pol's last mission as a Starfleet officer, however, proves eventful when she and Archer are kidnapped by a militant faction on an alien planet.

Enterprise encounters a group of Vulcan civilians who have split off from the normal way of Vulcan life in an effort to explore their emotions. T'Pol is disturbed by the new visitors and warns the Captain that all attempts in the past to integrate Vulcan emotions into their lives has proven disastrous. Meanwhile, a message from Admiral Forrest leaves the Captain with the difficult task of trying to convince one of the visiting Vulcans to call home to speak with his dying father.

Enterprise is sent to the planet Mazar to pick up a Vulcan ambassador who has been expelled for misconduct.

Starfleet orders Enterprise to return home when the crew seemingly causes the destruction of an alien planet. However, a visit from Crewman Daniels leads Archer to believe that this disaster was the plot of one of the factions from the temporal cold war.

Daniels and Archer must find a way back to the 22nd century in order to make sure history plays out as it should. Meanwhile, on board Enterprise, the Suliban have taken over the ship, but Reed, Trip, and T'Pol formulate a plan to eject the aliens.

Both the Vulcans and the Andorians make a claim to a small planet and military conflict soon erupts. As the fighting goes on, the Vulcans announce they are willing to discuss cease fire terms. However, Imperial Guard officer Shran believes only Captain Archer can be trusted to mediate the situation, which drags the Enterprise crew into the tense situation.

The Enterprise crew find a small craft drifting in space and are surprised to find it contains a human corpse. More questions arise when the Suliban and Tholians make claims to the craft.

The remnants of an alien ship and two frozen cybernetic bodies are uncovered in the arctic by a research team. These aliens soon thaw out and flee Earth, taking the research team with them. Starfleet orders Enterprise to find them, but the crew aren't prepared for just how dangerous these aliens really are.

Archer tells T'Pol the story of when he and a rival named A.G. Robinson were in competition for breaking the Warp 2 barrier.

An alien race known as the Xindi launch an attack on Earth, causing great casualties and massive damage. As Enterprise heads back home, an unlikely source informs Archer about the Xindi and that their next attack will destroy Earth.

Once the NX-01 finally returns to Earth, the weary crewmen face repercussions of their journeys, both positive and negative.

Earth's embassy on Vulcan is bombed, and the ensuing investigation puts Archer and T'Pol on the trail of a Vulcan religious faction hiding in a treacherous desert.