September 13, 1956: Although the Project Quantum Leap (PQL) isn't ready yet, Sam doesn't listen his supercomputer, Ziggy, and hops into the Accelerator and leaps. As Tom Stratton, an Air Force test pilot, Sam finds his memory Swiss cheesed, with only enough left to know that he is not where or when he belongs. Al explains that the Project has gone "a little caca" and that the only way Sam can leap out is by flying the X-2 to Mach 3. Instead, Sam leaps after saving his wife and child, only to find that rather than leaping home, he's leapt into Ken Fox, a minor league baseball player in Texas, at the end of the 1968 season, where he must make the winning play in order to leap.
June 15, 1972: As Dr. Gerald Bryant, a literature professor at the Ohio College attended by his one-time fiancée, Sam has to prevent an amorous co-ed from attaching to him and ruining her life. Despite threats to his job, Al gives Sam the information he needs to reunite his star-crossed lover with her father and, maybe, give himself a second shot at marriage.
October 24, 1974: Having leaped into Kid Cody, a boxer on the take, Sam has to win the championship to fund a new church for his new contract owners, a group of nuns. Sam must face the bookie who counts on him to take a dive in the final bout and, with the help of several trainers, streaking, and Al's appearance in the ring to guide his punches, Sam wins the bout and finances the chapel.
November 8, 1965: Though his goal as a Mafia hitman named Frankie is unclear, Sam follows a list of instructions, supplied by Ziggy in an effort to bring Sam back to the Project. These instructions result in the Great East Coast Blackout and, rather than leaping home, Sam finds himself in the life of the Mafia don who's been jealously preventing a romance between Frankie and the don's girlfriend. Sam believes he knows his mission, and publicly announces Frankie's marriage to the girlfriend, putting himself in a position to call a winning Bingo number.
August 8, 1955: In the life of Jesse Tyler, an aging black chauffeur, Sam must face discrimination in the South while trying to prevent the death of an elderly white woman. Actions motivated by his own belief in equality cause violent reactions, as Sam tries to convince one of the pillars of the community to change her views on racism and the futility of trying to change a society for the better.
June 6, 1961: As a high school nerd, Sam is required to prevent the marriage of his sister to an abusive drinker, with the wedding only three days away. By drag racing the prospective husband, beating him with a car that couldn't have won without nitrous oxide, Sam shows the groom's true tendencies.
April 14, 1953: With looks that could double for Humphrey Bogart, Sam is Nick Allen, a private investigator looking for the murderer of his partner and, if he doesn't find the answer in time, himself. The case is solved with a number of Casablanca references as Sam launches a new pulp novelist along the way.
May 21, 1979: Sam leaps into Ray Hutton, the understudy for the role of Cervantes just seconds before curtain time. His mission: prevent the drunken star from falling and seriously injuring himself during a benefit performance of "Man of La Mancha." Sam isn't helped by the presence of his former piano teacher, on whom he once had a crush, and who now appears to have caught the star's eye as well.
April 1, 1969: When Sam leaps into the life of an undercover cop, Al explains that his mission is to convince a navy nurse that her MIA husband is still alive, and to prevent her from marrying a lawyer she meets on the day Sam leaps in. But a series of coincidences causes Sam to wonder about the true nature of his mission.
June 7, 1958: As Darlene Monte, a contestant in the "Miss Deep South" beauty pageant, Sam must come to the aid of an innocent contender who faces disgrace when she poses for naughty pictures taken by a sleazy pageant photographer. As if things weren't bad enough, Sam must ensure that Darlene finishes third, so that she'll go on to become a doctor.
December 24, 1962: On Christmas Eve, Sam leap into Reginald Pierson, valet to a wealthy contractor, who is in danger of losing his soul in an attempt to demolish a Salvation Army mission, so he can build his "Blake's Plaza." Seeing a similarity to the Dickens's character, Sam and Al decide to "Scrooge" the greed out of the man.
October 6, 1957: Sam leaps Kenny Sharp, better known as "Future Boy," sidekick to Moe Stein, host of the kid's show, "Time Patrol," who also happens to be building a time machine in his basement. Unless Sam can prevent Moe's daughter from attempting to have her father committed, Moe is destined to be killed as he tries to hop a freight train.
October 6, 1979: An aspiring dancer working as a waitress in a strip club is in danger of being led into a life of prostitution unless Sam, as "Rod the Bod," can convince her to audition for a spot in a professional dance group. But, since she's deaf, the choreographer doesn't believe she has the time to give the young lady the attention she'll need.
May 12, 1971: "Just think of someplace far away" is the advice Sam hears as he leaps into Jesus Ortega, a Cuban-American being strapped into an electric chair. A last second stay of execution gives Sam just forty-eight hours to either prove himself innocent or fulfill his mission so that he can leap before the Big Switch is pulled.
July 23, 1955: The heart of a champion belongs to Ronnie, a professional wrestler, who will die if he competes in the title match. Sam, as his brother and new partner Terry, must convince him of his hidden health problem, while avoiding his own health problem - the jealous wrestler-husband of a woman who has taken an amorous interest in Sam.
October 3, 1954: Leaping into Sam Bederman, a mental patient who is suffering from acute depression, Sam receives an overloaded electroshock treatment, which causes his Swiss-cheesed memory to be replaced by personas from previous leaps. Al, finding himself visible to the mentally absent, must try to complete Sam's mission, and convince him to take another shock treatment, in order to leap Sam out before contact is lost forever.
February 28, 1979: It's more like a nightmare when Sam leaps into a detective, investigating a gruesome murder. He may be next if he doesn't find out who eviscerated the victim and his only hope is the victim's catatonic son and her husband's psychiatrist. The horrific flashbacks he's experiencing don't help matters much either.
August 13, 1956: Flying over the Bermuda Triangle, Sam, as the co-pilot, must prevent the flight from returning to Virginia, to get a seriously ill passenger to a doctor before she dies. Flying through the triangle is riskier than it seems, and Sam, deprived of Al's help when the hologram fades out, must get them through alive.
March 2, 1957: It's almost as though Sam were on vacation when, as Egyptologist Dale Conway, he gets to read hieroglyphics, search lost tombs, and, of course, visit Egypt. But between an encroaching sandstorm, computer glitches back at the Project, the suspicious deaths of the guides, and a 3000-year-old curse to round things off, Sam has very little time to play in the sand.
August 10, 1968: As a Marine captain whose legs were amputated after a mishap in Vietnam, Sam finds himself in a veteran's hospital, where he must prevent the suicide of a fellow patient who would rather be dead than face life paralyzed from the neck down. Making matters worse, his wife seems incapable of accepting the fact that she and Sam's host can still lead a normal life, in spite of his condition.
June 18, 1958: Sam leaps into a tricky situation as an escaped killer holed up in a house with a mother and daughter as hostages. Escape isn't going to be easy for either Sam or his hostages, when the real killer breaks out of the waiting room, stranding Sam in the past, destined to die at the hands of a vengeful sheriff.
May 21, 1966: Sam leaps into a 79-year-old man whose son wants to have him committed when he claims to have seen UFO's. Sam is kept busy as he tries to keep the family together, prevent the future drug overdose of "his" grandson, and avoid the sinister plans of the military, all before the next anticipated UFO sighting.
March 19, 1966: Things are already on there way downhill when Sam leaps back into Jimmy LaMotta. Despite Sam's inaction, history continues to change for the worst. The cause is unknown until Sam discovers another time traveler on the scene, one who's determined to destroy Jimmy's family, as well as Sam.
August 8, 1955: A pair of unsolved murders marks just the tip of the iceberg when Sam leaps into a sheriff in a small Louisiana town. Rumors of a history of family insanity, the suspicions surrounding his daughter Abigail's involvement in the murders, and ghostly visions of his institutionalized wife just make matters worse.
February 25, 1958: As a horse-playing, traveling brush salesman, Sam finds himself with two wives and two families. Although Ziggy predicts that Sam's mission is to choose between the two lives, the choice is made more difficult by the fact that there's only a 50/50 chance that he'll choose the right one. As if things weren't bad enough, Sam finds that his penniless host owes a pair of bookies some big bucks.
April 25, 1985: While Sam is in 1985, running her radio talk show, playing matchmaker to her producers, and trying to help a young secretary who's being sexually harassed by her boss, Dr. Ruth Westheimer spends her time in the Waiting Room, counseling Al on his feelings towards his five wives, as well as his relationship with Tina.
October 8, 1956: As Arnold Watkins, better known as The Midnight Marauder, Sam has to persuade a fraternity to stop using chicken races as a part of their hazing ceremonies, while Al tries to convince Arnold to stop trying to get himself killed in retaliation for his parents' deaths twelve years earlier. When Alia, the evil leaper, appears on the scene, Sam becomes determined to take her with him when he leaps.
September 16, 1987: Having simu-leaped, both Sam and Alia find themselves trapped in a women's prison, accused of murdering a fellow inmate. Their efforts to unmask the real killer are not their top priority as the two attempt to keep Alia's location hidden from her observer, Zoey, who leaps into the same place and time, determined to make Alia pay for her betrayal.
November 6, 1972: Sam leaps into Henry Adams, one of a trio of friends who fought in Vietnam and came home each with their own personal scars and the memory of a lost buddy. He has to save the life of a friend, Roy, as well as of a young boy, Daniel, who ventures into the woods of Washington looking for proof of Bigfoot.
September 20, 1862: In a bizarre twist of a genetic coil, Sam leaps into his great-grandfather, Captain John Beckett, during the Civil War. He must not interfere with his ancestor's romance with a riled southern belle named Olivia. He must also avoid being hanged as a Yankee dog by some home guard Confederate soldiers.