How to Get Away with Murder (season 1)

A defense attorney and Criminal Law professor, Annalise Keating, selects a group of her best students to work at her firm. Annalise's client is a woman accused of the attempted murder of her lover, her boss, with aspirin, to which he is highly allergic. Wes then finds out that Annalise is cheating on her husband, Sam, while Connor finds interesting ways to help with the case. The body of a student who had been missing for months, Lila Stangard, is found in the water tank of her sorority by a repairman. As Annalise and Sam view the ensuing news report together, Annalise remarks, "I bet you the boyfriend did it."

Annalise takes on the case of a millionaire (Steven Weber) who is accused of murdering his wife. Connor tries to make things right with his tech boyfriend after he skips dinner to work on the case. Annalise's trial is thrown for a loop when the daughter of the accused reveals to the prosecution that her father had murdered her mother in the same way he has been accused of killing his second wife. Annalise begins to grow suspicious of Sam and his involvement with Lila Stangard. Laurel goes to Bonnie looking for advice about Frank.

Annalise takes on the case of soccer mom, Paula Murphy (Ana Ortiz), who originally is caught having sex with a man in a park but is soon put on trial for murder. Wes tries to help Rebecca, who is now taking the fall for Lila's murder. Michaela finds out that her fiancé had a relationship with Connor years ago in boarding school. Nate looks into Sam's alibi the night of Lila's murder and finds that he does not have one but confirms to Annalise that Sam's alibi is airtight. Annalise's case is put on hold after the soccer mom goes on the run with her former lover, a convicted felon.

Annalise takes on the case of an old friend, Marren Trudeau (Elizabeth Perkins), who is being accused of fraud and who is insisting that she is innocent and being framed. Wes gets himself kicked off Rebecca's case after they find it was his fault that she confessed to murdering Lila. Connor hooks up with a guy to help the case and realizes he has genuine feelings for Oliver, who kicks him out when he learns about the other guy. Frank faces jealousy issues with Laurel. Bonnie has to find ways to get Rebecca's confession thrown out. Wes finally convinces Rebecca that they need to know what is on Lila's phone. With this, Rebecca finally begins to trust him. They then discover there's a photo of Sam Keating's penis on the phone.

Annalise takes on the case of a teenager who is being charged with the murder of his abusive father, while Wes questions her on when she's going to give the phone to the police. Annalise finds out about how Bonnie got Rebecca's confession and Laurel jeopardizes her career and risks going to jail when she tries to help with the case. Annalise confronts Sam about his relationship with Lila. They soon bring Rebecca in for a 'routine psych evaluation' to find out if she knew who Lila was having an affair with, but Rebecca runs out after finding that the wallpaper in Sam and Annalise's room is the same wallpaper in the picture. Laurel and Frank go head to head with each other as they fight their feelings, while Bonnie doesn't know what to do after witnessing the fight between Annalise and Sam.

Annalise finds out that she is finally able to retry someone who was put on death row more than twenty years ago and she is now able to convince the Supreme Court of his innocence. Wes stops coming to class, so Frank tries to find Rebecca in order to get Wes back into the fold. Annalise and the team prepare for their Supreme Court hearing and try to figure out how their client was set up. During the trial Annalise is reprimanded for how her case is built on circumstances, only for them to argue that the original case was the same, resulting in their client being set free. Frank plants Lila's phone in her boyfriend Griffin's car, only for Nate to find out, resulting in Griffin getting arrested. Annalise tells Sam about what she's done and tells him the only reason she did it was because she needs him.

Annalise continues to tackle Rebecca's case for the murder of Lila when they find out that Griffin's lawyers have been leaking things to the tabloids to make Rebecca look bad, resulting in a gag order. Michaela finds that she has an interview at a law firm, only to discover that it's her future in-laws who have called the meeting for a prenuptial agreement. Griffin's defense team wants to exhume Lila's body in order to show that Rebecca was the one who killed Lila, resulting in the prosecution coming to Annalise for help because they don't want the same thing. However, the prosecutor double-crosses Annalise and Asher hooks up with someone on the prosecution's team to obtain information and find out why the prosecution did the double-cross. Later on, the judge orders Lila's body to be exhumed. Following a brief argument, Wes and Rebecca give in to their feelings for each other and sleep together. Laurel and Frank have sex in the front of the office. After the examination, their case for Rebecca is bolstered by the fact that the marks on Lila's neck are from ant bites, but more problems for the case and Sam come to light when it is discovered that Lila was six weeks pregnant when she died.

Annalise takes on the case of a professional woman and mother who apparently murdered her children's nanny whilst sleepwalking under the influence of her sleeping pills. Michaela meets with her future mother-in-law to discuss the pre-nup agreement she is refusing to sign. Laurel, getting closer with Frank, discovers he has a girlfriend. Bonnie confesses to Annalise that Sam knew Lila was pregnant after he comes onto her and tries to convince her to keep it a secret. Wes tells Rebecca that the man she is helping is Annalise's lover, which leads to a huge fight. Rebecca sneaks off to get incriminating evidence about Sam herself, leading into the events of the present scenes.

Annalise's sister-in-law arrives in Middleton, looking for answers about Sam's supposed disappearance. Annalise instead focuses on the case of Jackie Wilson, a woman whose husband has sexually abused her and the two young women in their basement. Laurel confides in Frank that she's starting to get nervous about the evidence left in Connor's SUV, so Frank steals the car and destroys it. It soon comes to light that Jackie stole the child of one of the girls in the basement, and is secretly raising it. Annalise then drops the case leaving Jackie to serve time in jail. Annalise admits to Hannah she lied about Sam's affair. Wes returns home to live news coverage that Sam's remains have been identified in the bin where Connor dumped the body.

A flashback shows that when the interns had confronted Rebecca about killing Lila, Rebecca blackmails them: saying that she found the campus cop who witnessed them carrying Sam's body out of Annalise's house the night of the bonfire. They move Rebecca to Annalise's house. They work the case in an attempt to see if they can make a case for Rebecca murdering Lila. Annalise eventually decides that all the evidence they have proving Rebecca killed Lila is circumstantial and therefore unwinnable. While they are working, Rebecca texts "Eggs 911 / Lawyer's house" to an unknown number from Michaela's phone. They move Rebecca into the basement of Annalise's house and tie her up. Wes listens to Rebecca's story of how she found Lila's body, hid inside the water tank when she heard people coming, and drugged Rudy to keep him quiet about seeing her come home soaking wet. He believes her story and that she is innocent. With the evidence against Rebecca being all circumstantial and Wes vouching for her, Annalise decides to free Rebecca and ask her nicely not to tell the police about the campus cop witness. Annalise goes downstairs to speak to Rebecca. Frank and the interns find Annalise outside by a door leading to an empty basement. Annalise states that Rebecca was gone when she came downstairs and demands to know which of her employees or interns let Rebecca go.

In a flashback, Sam met with Lila on the roof of the sorority house after she threatened to go public with the pregnancy. Sam consoles Lila and proclaims his love for her, telling her that he hadn't loved Annalise for years and he was going to go tell her. But after leaving, Sam makes a call and tells someone to do what they agreed on. It is then shown it was Frank who strangled Lila. As Wes leaves, Annalise returns to the basement where Frank is. She asks him if he "did it", and he in turn does the same, but they both deny it. When we see Rebecca's body hidden underneath the basement staircase, it is then revealed that they are referring to the fact that Rebecca never left the house and was in fact killed.