James, Carlos, Logan and Kendall get the opportunity of a lifetime when they are asked to head to Los Angeles and form a singing group. Once they are in Los Angeles, they must figure out a way to make Gustavo Rocque and Rocque Records happy in order to become a singing sensation.

The boys get a dose of reality when Kelly tells them they have to go to school at least four hours every day while they live in Los Angeles. While the boys want to go to the fun Palm Woods school, they learn that Gustavo has arranged to have their school located at the recording studio, so they are never far from his grip. The boys do whatever is necessary to take down the "School of Rocque" and go to the Palm Woods school. Meanwhile, an attempt from Mrs. Knight to home school Katie (Ciara Bravo) fails, so she tries to get Katie to act in a commercial to gain entrance in the Palm Woods, with the help of Mr. Bitters.

The boys are not thrilled with their boring apartment at the Palm Woods and hatch a plan to improve it when Gustavo creates a fun "fake" living area for them on a soundstage for an upcoming EPK shoot. The guys enlist the help of all their friends at Palm Woods to move all the cool games and gadgets from the set to their apartment.

The record company CEO thinks adding a fifth band member will broaden Big Time Rush's appeal and sticks the guys with a self-proclaimed "bad boy" named Wayne Wayne, who tries to inject dissension and tension within the group. Ultimately, Gustavo and the guys secretly band together to get him booted out of the band, in a "bad boy-off". Meanwhile, Mrs. Knight gets persuaded that there's an axe maniac on the loose, and forces Katie to play with a girl named Molly, who is later found to be a con actress that's 20 years old and tries to pass herself off as an 11-year-old girl driving in a high speed chase with cops, using Mrs. Knight's rental car, trying to get a job in Hollywood.

The guys chase the same girl named Jo, causing the band to fight. Meanwhile, James gets an allergic reaction to a body spray and Kelly (Tanya Chisholm) attempts to make him get an allergy shot, Gustavo gets a new personal helper named Freight Train, Katie has to write a report on her biggest hero and writes about Gustavo so she does not have to read anything, and Griffin wants a slow love song for the next song, but Gustavo cannot seem to figure out how to make the song work.

When Gustavo goes away for a few days to check out a new boyband called "The Windmills", the guys "mansion sit" for him much to Gustavo's dismay. After much discussion with Kelly, Gustavo allows the boys to "mansion sit" but they must follow his rules or else they are fired. Once at the mansion the guys think it will be an easy task, but what seems like a task they can handle soon turns into a "big time disaster" as things don't go according to plan. Meanwhile with Kendall and the guys away, Mrs Knight starts to fell less needed by her children, so Katie decides to help her mother out by pretending to be sick.

The boys are at the Palm Woods, severely injured. Camille asked them why they look so beat up if they just got their picture in Pop Tiger. The boys show their entire flashback from beginning to end: The boys were having their very first photo shoot as Big Time Rush. However, with Gustavo and Kelly doing community service for vandalizing Matthew McConaughey's mailbox, Griffin took over and makes them "space matadors with stuffy puppies". A simple photo shoot becomes a race for time and the perfect shot. Meanwhile, Katie and her mom are determined to get an autograph from teen hunk Dak Zevon, and Mrs. Knight starts to go a little nuts when the security guards are mean to Katie, so she (Mrs. Knight) gets all the fans of Dak and tries to barricade the door to Dak's recording room.

The boys are relieved to finally be able to spend some time apart after finding out that Gustavo is taking the day off. Logan is determined to get into a math lecture taught by Phoebe Nachee, but is disappointed when he finds out that the lecture is at an all girls school. Carlos panics when he realizes his helmet is missing, but gets a surprise visit from his father, a policeman, who accompanies him on the mission to retrieve his helmet. James decides to spend his day off trying to set off his acting career with the help of Camille. Kendall is desperate to spend time with his crush, Jo, but is discouraged when she continuously reminds him she has a boyfriend. However, when Katie finds out that Jo does not have a boyfriend, she tells Kendall, and he is determined to get the truth out of her.

The guys, who desperately want to remain in L.A., have to pass the greenlight of their demos for that to happen, after Kelly tells them they will be forced to head back to Minnesota if they do not get their CD's greenlighted. Mercedes Griffin, Griffins daughter, comes and pretends to be the "secret someone who picks the demos". They soon find out that the demos are picked by a chimpanzee, so they try to bribe it to pick Big Time Rush. Meanwhile, Mrs. Knight tries to be assistant manager to stay at Palm Woods for Katie's sake.

When the boys find out they are not invited to their own party at Rocque Records, they decide to throw their own in the Palm Woods, since Mrs. Knight and Katie are off to San Diego, even though Mr. Bitters does not allow it. They call the party a 'social gathering', since there is no rule forbidding them, and the boys agree on only inviting 3 friends each. Kendall invites Jo, as his 'guest-friend-person-thing', while James invites the 3 hottest girls on his phone. It is unknown who Logan invited. Carlos cannot decide and ends up inviting the first 3 contacts on his phone and one of them is 'All Contacts' (Carlos thought it was "Al Contacts", thus inviting his whole phone). During the "social gathering," everybody in Carlos phone is now in the party which causes a big problem. Soon, Bitters is hunting for their party, so Kendall and Jo try to stop him before the boys get "3 strikes" and are thrown out of the Palm Woods. Both Camille and Mercedes arrive at the party trying to spend some time with Logan which causes a problem for him.

The boys must impress a well-known blogger, Deke whose words can control their career. They are going to be spending a "Day with Deke" very soon, so Gustavo hires people to train the boys to have a good "Day with Deke". When the interview starts, 5 minutes later, Deke writes a bad review, and the boys must figure out how to change his mind about them for a good review before he posts it through a series of traps. Meanwhile, Gustavo gets a "Scuttlebutter" account and sends out a Scutbut that he hate Brussels, the capital of Belgium. (He meant to type that he hates Brussel Sprouts)

Gustavo's mansion becomes flooded, so he decides to live with the boys at the Palm Woods until it's unflooded. However, the boys want him to leave as soon as possible and will do whatever it takes to make him leave. Meanwhile, Carlos and Mr. Bitters are trying to prove that there is a ghost in the Palm Woods, while Logan is there to prove him wrong.

The kids at the Palm Woods are organizing their first school dance, and the boys of Big Time Rush have secured the perfect location, Gustavo's recording studio. However there is a catch, the guys have to perform one of their songs during the evening. Now on top of having to get the perfect date, the guys have the added pressure of giving their first performance in front of a live audience. Kendall and Katie attempt to find their mom a perfect date, during which Kendall forgets to ask Jo to the dance, instead asking her to do preparations for the dance. The Jennifers all take Carlos under different personas after rejecting all the guys who asked them including Carlos (Carlos being the coolest, but still out of their league) and a nerdy kid. Logan tries to find the courage to ask Camille, but keeps failing miserably. James in his attempts to help out Logan accidentally asks out numerous girls including Rachael.

The boys are told to stay away from Jordin Sparks while she stays at the Palm Woods and records a new song at Rocque Records. As they try to protect her, they only give her bad luck, eventually pushing her down a well and when Kendall tries to help her, Jo catches him and thinks he is cheating on her.

A heatwave strikes Hollywood and James starts to use tanning spray that's supposedly "mangerine" to the point of his skin looking orange. The boys find out that James has "Hollywood Fever" from Camille and when Gustavo sees this, he tells Kendall, Logan, and Carlos to fix James, or he will fire and replace him. Kendall, Logan, and Carlos go on a mission to get rid of the his tanning spray by chasing him around with water-guns. While on the mission, Carlos finds out that the one of the Jennifers went away so he joins their group and also catches Hollywood fever. Meanwhile, while Logan looks for James in Palm Woods Park, he runs into Guitar Dude who gives him a set of bongos and tells him to chill out, catching the fever and losing his uptight edge in the process.

The boys learn that Camille is leaving the Palm Woods unless she gets a part in an acting job, and must help her, eventually promising everyone a part in their upcoming music video. But Gustavo said Camille cannot be in the video, and Big Time Rush tell everyone that they can be in the video. They gotta figure out how to get everyone in the video, and Marcos tries to direct the music video but Gustavo will not let him. They stole Mr. Bitter's car for the video themselves, including all the people they promise and Marcos is directing, and the video's amazing. Gustavo asks Mr. Bitters to sell his car, and makes it Big Time Rush Mobile.

In the eye of their first album release, Griffin, the head of the record label, cancels the album, tour, and concert, forcing them to return to Minnesota, which threatens to break up their life-long friendships. James gets mad and he's got 3 record deal, and joins Hawk, Gustavo's Arch-Rival. Gustavo has to pay back to Griffin $2,000,000 to get back Big Time Rush, and to get them to come back and to finally perform concert. They come back to the LA, and they cannot stay in the Palmwoods again, so they all start living in the Rocque Records "RocqueWoods". James does not want to come back to Big Time Rush so they open an audition for the new James, but they can find anyone and James comes back and they prepare for the concert