Dean takes on his first assignment since his promotion, piloting the Clipper Majestic on its inaugural New York to London flight. Bridget is supposed to be his lead stewardess, until she's a no-show for the flight. Grounded purser Maggie is called in to fill in for her. On the same fateful flight, Kate adds another dimension to her work as she takes on her first assignment from U.S. intelligence. Her stress is compounded when she discovers that newly minted stewardess, Laura, her sister, is also working the same flight.

On a trip to Paris, Kate and Laura have a surprise passenger—their mom—who has come to settle some unfinished business with Laura; Maggie faces the unwanted attentions of an aggressive passenger, and Dean and Colette share a momentary flirtation as he tries to track down some leads on Bridget.

After a last minute change sends the crew on a flight to Rangoon, a routine courier mission for Kate turns harrowing as she struggles to make a drop by the deadline. Meanwhile, Maggie takes naive Laura under her wing and shows her the wilder side of the city; and news of a space mission leads Ted to reflect on his own past and what his powerful family connections have cost him.

Sparks fly between Laura and a sailor on a special – and unusually wild -- Pan Am flight bringing servicemen home, leading Laura to realize what she’s really looking for in a man, as well as opening her eyes to the malicious racial climate in the country. Meanwhile Kate’s complicated mission to turn Niko to work for the U.S. government culminates in dramatic fashion, threatening their personal relationship.

Dean is tapped to fly the first-ever commercial flight to Moscow, but the day of departure, a blowhard veteran pilot, Broyles, takes the controls and makes Dean co-pilot. While in Russia, Kate tries to pull off an important mission, but when Laura and another Pan Am stewardess are mistaken for spies, Kate tries to expedite their release with the help of an unlikely ally. Back at home, Congressman Rawlings and his staff work to track down whoever anonymously wrote the negative new story about him, and Maggie agrees to be his date at a fund-raiser. Can she keep her temper dealing with so many conservative political supporters and retain her cover as the article's author? Ted's relationship with Amanda gets serious, but Maggie learns something about her that may hinder this whirlwind romance.