The expanded third season picks up six months after the events of season two and follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee as they investigate the disappearance of two boys, with only an abandoned bicycle and blood-stained patch of ground left in their wake. Meanwhile, Bernadette Manuelito attempts to settle into her new life 500 miles from home with the Border Patrol, but stumbles across a conspiracy involving human and drug smuggling with far-reaching implications.
After spending the summer with his mother in Philadelphia, Dawson returns to Capeside and meets a beautiful, outgoing, young woman, named Eve Whitman, on the bus from Philadelphia. Eve soon brings trouble to Dawson's ho-hum life when he accidentally wrecks his father's boat during an outing with her and tries to come up with $3,000 to repair it before Mitch finds out. So, Eve helps out by throwing a rave party at the Leery house with strippers from the club she works at. Meanwhile, Joey, who has frozen Dawson out all summer for forcing her to rat out her father, realizes that she still has feelings for him again when they meet during the first day back at Capeside High as juniors. While working at the Capeside Marina, Joey deals with the come-ons from her sexist boss Rob Logan. Jen gets more than she bargained for when she tries out for Capeside High's cheer leading squad and faces off in a war-of-wits against the mean-spirited head cheerleader, and acquires her position. Also, Mitch gets a new job as Capeside High's varsity football coach, and a new charismatic, but very stern, principal, named Howard Green, arrives to administrate the school.
Joey begins her first day at Worthington University where she is struggling in her beginners writing class taught by Professor David Wilder who criticizes her first essay about her and Dawson. Audrey Liddell, Joey's brash new roommate from Beverly Hills, proves to be more of an annoyance than a friend with her wild and crazy personality. Dawson, who's continuing his studies at USC with an internship in Hollywood, begins his job on a shaky start when he meets Todd Carr, an arrogant, egocentric, hack film director who gives Dawson a hard time. Meanwhile, Jen pays Pacey a visit, who's lying low as he docks his yacht in Boston Harbor after sailing away the summer. At nearby Boston Bay College, Jen and Jack are invited to their first fraternity party. They persuade Joey to come along with Audrey who seems to get along with Jen and Jack, much to Joey's surprise. Also, Jen meets Charlie, a bass player. She is rude to him, insulting him away, but deep inside feels strongly attracted to him.
During the summer, Pacey and Audrey rocked Los Angeles and spent time with her next door neighbors, the Osbournes, and Jack Osbourne even tags along with them to interview at Worthington. Jen spent her time in New York and got ecstatic to learn her parents are separating. Jack got dumped by Eric, but got over it. Joey spent her summer in Capeside doing a lot of reading, working and romancing. On their first week back at Boston Bay College, Jen is shocked to run into find that Grams Ryan has decided to go back to school. At Worthington, Joey experiences nothing but bad luck when she decides to enroll in an intermediate writing class taught by the liberal, but manipulative and cynical, Professor Greg Heston who does not hesitate to ridicule and embarrass Joey in front of the class with her lack of knowledge of the current book topic. Pacey and Jack move out of Grams' house and Pacey tries to get the perfect apartment, owned by a feisty, punk rock British woman, named Emma Jones, who works as a waitress in the local bar Hell's Kitchen. Also, Dawson is working on a new movie, a horror film titled "Wicked Dead" with him as the assistant director and the hack Todd Carr as director. When he finally gets together with Joey, he is the only one to have remembered her 20th birthday.
这部剧从1998年开播、共播出六年、被誉为“美国青少年成长教科书”的青春偶像剧。《Dawson's Creek》故事发生在美国东部城市波士顿(Boston)附近一个名为Capeside的海边小镇，剧情围绕两男两女四个好朋友如何一步步走过青春期、走向成熟：15岁的Dawson(James Van Der Beek饰演)是一个迷恋着斯皮尔伯格不可救药的梦想家，住在小溪下游的Joey(Katie Holmes饰演)浑身散发着自然纯朴的邻家女孩气息，Dawson的“问题”好友Pacey总是敢于冒险做出一些让大家不可思议的举动，新搬到Dawson家隔壁来的纽约女孩Jen可爱的外表下却有着一颗狂野不羁的心……这就是《Dawson's Creek》第一季节目四位主角的设定，在随后五年的播出中，主角阵容虽然有着细微的变化，比如后来新增的同性恋角色Jack，但四位好友依然是故事的中心，他们相识相知、高中毕业、走进大学、各奔东西，经历的种种友情、亲情、爱情纷扰，至今仍为众多剧迷津津乐道……
