James, Carlos, Logan and Kendall get the opportunity of a lifetime when they are asked to head to Los Angeles and form a singing group. Once they are in Los Angeles, they must figure out a way to make Gustavo Rocque and Rocque Records happy in order to become a singing sensation.

The boys get a dose of reality when Kelly tells them they have to go to school at least four hours every day while they live in Los Angeles. While the boys want to go to the fun Palm Woods school, they learn that Gustavo has arranged to have their school located at the recording studio, so they are never far from his grip. The boys do whatever is necessary to take down the "School of Rocque" and go to the Palm Woods school. Meanwhile, an attempt from Mrs. Knight to home school Katie (Ciara Bravo) fails, so she tries to get Katie to act in a commercial to gain entrance in the Palm Woods, with the help of Mr. Bitters.

The boys are not thrilled with their boring apartment at the Palm Woods and hatch a plan to improve it when Gustavo creates a fun "fake" living area for them on a soundstage for an upcoming EPK shoot. The guys enlist the help of all their friends at Palm Woods to move all the cool games and gadgets from the set to their apartment.

The record company CEO thinks adding a fifth band member will broaden Big Time Rush's appeal and sticks the guys with a self-proclaimed "bad boy" named Wayne Wayne, who tries to inject dissension and tension within the group. Ultimately, Gustavo and the guys secretly band together to get him booted out of the band, in a "bad boy-off". Meanwhile, Mrs. Knight gets persuaded that there's an axe maniac on the loose, and forces Katie to play with a girl named Molly, who is later found to be a con actress that's 20 years old and tries to pass herself off as an 11-year-old girl driving in a high speed chase with cops, using Mrs. Knight's rental car, trying to get a job in Hollywood.