The story begins with the murder of Laura Palmer, a teen aged girl who lived in the quiet town of Twin Peaks, near the US - Canadian borders. Everyone seems surprised and devastated by the girl's murder, and the town's sherif welcomes the help of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who comes to investigate the case. As Cooper begins his search for Laura's killer, the town's secrets are gradually exposed. This is definitely not an average quiet town, it seems as everyone has something big to hide. At nights, agent Cooper sees strange visions of Laura and other mysterious people, visions that tell him that something big is happening here, something far more evil than a single murder case...

The pattern on the floor of the Black Lodge is similar to the pattern on the floor of the lobby of Henry's house in Eraserhead (1977), also directed by David Lynch. The Black Lodge version of the pattern is much larger.

Dale Cooper:
In the grand design, women were definitely drawn from a different set of blueprints.

Continuity: The fact that there was a year's gap between the filming of the pilot episode and the first season's episode is evident in the different hairstyles sported by some of the cast. Although only a night is meant to have passed between the episodes, James Hurley, Sheriff Truman, and Deputy Brennan all have shorter haircuts by the next day. Donna Hayward, Catherine Martell and Audrey Horne (in particular) all have noticeably longer hair by the next day.