In 1989, local logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. When Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and doctor Will Haywardarrive, the body is identified as high school senior and homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A badly injured second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state.

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate.