Piper says goodbye to her fiance Larry and surrenders herself at the prison. Once inside, she quickly makes enemies.
Sentenced to fifteen months for a crime committed ten years earlier, Piper Chapman leaves her supportive fiancee Larry for her new home: a women's prison. Her supervisor, Sam Healy sympathizes with her and tries to gently give her tips to survive. She grapples with the racial dynamics of prison life and learns some of the rules. Unfortunately, she offends Red, the powerful matriarch of the prison kitchen, who responds by serving Piper a bloody tampon and subsequently starving her.
Piper is then shocked to discover that Alex Vause, her former lover (who recruited her into carrying drug money) is in the same prison. Flashbacks depict the particulars of Piper's crime, Piper telling her family about her crime, and Larry's marriage proposal. Daya Diaz, another inmate, is greeted by her mother, who is also incarcerated, with a slap to the face.