Pacey and Joey return from their summer vacation on "True Love". Now they have to deal with Dawson's feelings, who has been deeply hurt for the past months. At first, he doesn't want to talk with neither one of them, but Jen convinces him to talk to Joey. Meanwhile, Pacey's older sister, Gretchen, arrives in Capeside and moves in with Doug, making Pacey homeless. But he won't live with his parents anymore, and so he asks Joey to let him crash at her house for a while. Dawson tells Jack about Gretchen, for whom he had a secret crush a few years ago. Andie meets 2 foreign guys, and she is attracted to them. Dawson and Joey talk, and he says he'll be ok, but it takes one day at a time. Everybody is wondering if Pacey and Joey did it while on the trip, and they don't confirm or deny. But Joey secretly tells Dawson nothing really happened.
Set in the fictional town of Capeside, MA, Dawson's Creek is the coming of age story of four friends on the verge of adulthood. Dawson, Joey, and Pacey are life long friends, whose lives start to rapidly change when a new girl, Jen, moves in next door to Dawson Leery and the foursome start high school. Along the way they are joined by two other newcomers to Capeside: Jack and Andie and, when they go to college, by Audrey. Often characterized by its intelligence, sharp wit, and SAT vocabulary, Dawson's Creek was created by Kevin Williamson. It was loosely based on his life, with each character incorporating a different aspect of himself.