After being turned down for the fellowship she was hinging her future on, Dr. Zoe Hart decides to take a stranger up on his offer to work at his small Alabama medical practice.

Hoping it might help the residents of BlueBell accept her, Zoe Hart agrees to join Mayor Lavon Hayes on his float during the Founder's Day parade, but accidentally crashing the float doesn't help Zoe win over Lemon and the other residents.

Zoe is determined to win BlueBell's gumbo contest and prove to everyone that she is a part of the community...and hopefully land some patients. Lavon develops a crush on Brick and Zoe's new receptionist, Didi, but things get a little messy after Lemon catches wind of the news. Zoe and Brick find themselves having to work together to perform a life-saving surgery.

As BlueBell is hit by an intense heat wave, Zoe discovers that the hot weather makes everyone act differently and with a lot less inhibition. In fact, it takes all of Zoe's strength to ignore her heat-induced attraction to Wade until it gets the best of her. Meanwhile, Lemon prepares for the arrival of George's family, determined to win them over, but her emotions get the best of her when Lavon shows up to the same restaurant with his date, Didi.

Zoe is in the center of a town scandal when she discovers something shocking about the local minister and his wife. Lemon must convince Lavon to choose her funding proposal.

Zoe thinks she's seen a ghost. Plus, her mother comes to town in hopes of reconciling with Zoe, and Lavon won't authorize Lemon and George's dream home purchase.