Bumbling bank janitor Ernest P. Worrell is assigned to jury duty, and soon finds himself in trouble when he is covertly switched with a look-a-like crime boss. Ernest must escape from jail to expose the mix-up.

The story, set in San Francisco, depicts the adventures of Allison Sydney Harrison, a high-school student who teams with her wealthy private-detective father David Harrison to solve crimes. In the pilot, Allison and David team to solve the murder of a beautiful woman. The prime suspect is their chauffeur, Pat Rosetti.

An ancient Aztec cloth with a curse accidentally finds its way into the possession of a young woman. She decides to make a dress from the cloth. Whoever wears this cloth/dress comes under its spell; all inhibitions and moral responsibilities are lost.

Marty and Speed are middle-aged San Francisco cabbies who hack to support their fading dream of making it as professional actors. Perpetually down on their luck, the friends find escape and camaraderie among their fellow drivers, playing cards and telling stories of backseat conquests, until one night when a dreaded "Signal 7" (driver's call for help) comes over the wire.

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

Leaving her son behind at her parents' home in Omaha, Nebraska, recent divorcée Zoe attempts to start her life anew by moving to San Francisco. Seeking something to fill her lonely hours, she begins singing with a church choir. When new choirmaster Ephraim Adams is hired, Zoe finds his attitudes and ideas difficult to tolerate. Faced with the challenging task of satisfying Adams' unrelenting perfectionism, Zoe is tempted once more to run away from her problems.

An Italian mechanic finds that he has inherited a billion-dollar company from his dead uncle, but he needs to be in San Francisco in 20 days to sign over the will. In the meantime, he is chased by kidnappers and the affected corporation's president.

At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the choices that shaped her life or embrace the past that made her who she is.

A group of elderly residents of an old San Francisco hotel are threatened with eviction when a developer wants to demolish the structure. Initially, they feel resigned to their fate, but a young desk clerk gets involved and helps spearhead a resistance.

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words used by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.