This show is about a wealthy woman in the 1800s who gives up her comfortable class station in order to head West and be a school teacher. Elizabeth Thatcher trades high society life for a classroom post in the prairie, determined to prove she is brave enough to live on her own. She learns through her aunt's secret diary that she had been a pioneer woman herself, and uses it as a guide to embark on her own adventures.

The series tells the story of a U.S. nuclear submarine crew who refuses direct orders to fire nuclear missiles and must go on the lam. They find sanctuary at a NATO base where they declare themselves the world's smallest nuclear nation.