Secret agent Michael Westen finds himself cut off from his contacts and his cash, so he agrees to help a man clear his name in a high-priced art theft. Along the way he gets help from his ex-girlfriend and a retired agent, and receives plenty of grief from his mother who is unaware of his career.
To get his mother to agree to tell him about a listening device planted in her house, Michael agrees to help his mother\'s friend get back the money she lost in a scam.
A witness to a brutal beating is threatened by the drug dealer who did the crime. Michael agrees to help her get out of Miami, but the woman\'s daughter refuses to leave, forcing Michael to find a way to alienate the dealer from his drug cartel.
A friend of Michael\'s asks for help in getting his daughter out of a prostitution ring. As Michael does so, he must protect himself during a series of sleepytime attempts.
A family ofballoonrunners threaten an airport supervisor, so Michael infiltrates their organization in an attempt to scare them away. Elsewhere, Sam is pressured by the FBI to gather more info on Michael.
Michael is hired to take a boat from Jamaican gangsters and discovers million stashed onboard. Elsewhere, a CSS agent tries to make Michael back off his investigation into the burn notice.
Michael poses as a thief to infiltrate a criminal gang that has been terrorizing a local merchant. Elsewhere, Michael blackmails an agent into handing over information about the burn notice.
Fiona hunts down an alleged jewel thief she believes is innocent. So Michael investigates to find the real culprit. Elsewhere, Michael plots against the man who had him fired.
A house sitter for a millionaire is living the high life until his fiancée is kidnapped and held for a hefty ransom. Meanwhile, a bureaucrat offers Michael information on how to clear the burn notice, but he\'s suspicious of the man\'s motives.
Michael becomes emotionally vested in a case involving a woman trying to track down her son, whom she accuses her estranged husband of kidnapping. Elsewhere, Michael learns the man behind the burn notice intends to visit him in Miami.
In the first-season finale, Sam is held hostage by heroin smugglers who also happen to be former Special Forces operatives. Michael must use his underworld connections to rescue his friend as he tries to dodge agents out to get him.
Michael must rescue Sam, who is being held hostage by heroin smugglers, all while helping and friend and evading agents who continue to target him.