'The L Word' follows the lives and loves of a group of lesbian friends living in Los Angeles. The main character, Jenny, is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, who moves to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend Tim and begin a professional writing career. Jenny's life is turned upside down when she attends a party hosted by Tim's next-door neighbors, Bette and Tina, a lesbian couple who are about to take the step into parenthood after being together for seven years. A brief encounter at the party with Marina, the owner of the local coffee house, suddenly has Jenny thrust into a whole new world that makes her question her own sexual orientation. Other friends of Bette and Tina include Dana, a professional tennis player who is shy but eager to meet the right woman; Alice, a magazine writer who has a brief relationship with a self-identified "lesbian" man; Shane, a hairstylist who can't stick to just one woman, and Kit, Bette's half sister who struggles with alcoholism.

Alice walks in on Jenny and Shane after their night of passion, and naturally does not hesitate to gossip about it to everyone she knows before they have a chance to explain. Meanwhile, Tina gets into trouble when the film negatives for the movie The Girls (which the producers changed from "Lez Girls"), have been stolen from the studio and Tina gets blamed because of her frustation over the movie's new ending. Tina thinks Jenny stole them, but Jenny denies it and even proves it since she not permitted on the studio grounds anymore. But when the real unseen culprit frames Tina for the theft by sending a ransom note e-mail from Tina's office computer, Tina's boss, as well as William Halsey, think that she may be a liablity to them in which leads Tina quitting her job. Elsewhere, Joyce and Phyllis give the news about their impending marriage. Bette continues to have problems at work when Jodi continues harassing. But when Phyllis turns down Bette's request to fire Jodi for insubordination, Bette decides to quit her job too. Also, Alice makes a choice to change her media career, and Dylan tries to get back together with Helena.

Katie plays the character of Marie.