In the first season, Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) is a U.S. Secret Service agent investigating the disappearance of two fellow agents in the mysterious small town of Wayward Pines, Idaho. Ethan awakens from a car accident unable to contact the outside world and unable to leave. He finds one of the agents dead and the other, his former lover Kate Hewson (Carla Gugino), settled down in the seemingly idyllic town.