Meet dance instructor Abby Lee Miller, the Dance Moms and their daughters as the competition season begins and they travel from Pittsburgh to Phoenix. The Dance Moms will push their young daughters to great lengths to get them to Nationals and Abby reveals big news to her young dance girls. They'll be working all year to get to the big National competition. If they want to win, they've got to work harder than ever. Abby's confident she can get them there, but with a group of dance moms living vicariously through their daughters, this may be more than she can handle, especially when Abby has her first conflict with two of the moms when they cross the line and risk losing it all.

The Dance Moms allow their daughters to wear outfits in a competition that are revealing and the scandal threatens to bring down the house. Abby's attempt to turn up the competition heat blows the audience away with what some may call an inappropriate dance number. She is hoping that this will give them their next big win. But it could backfire.

On their way to a big competition, Christi finds out her grandmother has just been admitted to a hospital. She now must choose what's more important to her--go to the hospital to sit by her grandmother's side or go to the dance competition.