After two years living in secrecy, Sarah Connor and her 15-year-old son John leave town – and the man she loves – to start again in a new city. But the android assassins from the future are still on their heels, bent on killing John, who is destined to become the leader of the resistance movement.
Sarah and John try to establish a new life in the year 2007, with Sarah trying to acquire I.D.s for them. Growing restless, John sneaks out and finds his mother's former fiance.
Sarah goes in search of a young man who has created a computer that could be the missing link in the evolution of artificial intelligence, and considers killing him before his work can be used for the creation of SkyNet.
In an attempt to ambush Cromartie, John finds a cargo shipment of the metal used to make the Terminators' skeletons, and becomes separated from his mother. Meanwhile, Cromartie finds a new face.
Sarah's friend Andy enters his advanced computer in a chess competition, making him a threat to the future of mankind if he wins the prize of a government contract. Sarah meets a resistance fighter with a very personal family connection.
Ellison tracks down the psychiatrist who once treated Sarah, but gets more than he bargained for. Cameron joins a ballet class while in search of the Turk, and John learns a disturbing truth from his mother's past.
Derek discovers the T-888 memory chip, casting doubt on whether Cameron can really be trusted. But as John analyzes the Terminator's memories, he discovers that it had married a woman in the pursuit of its mission.
A man offers to sell the Turk to Sarah and Derek, only to threaten to expose them to the F.B.I. Agent Ellison comes closer to Cromartie, as Cromartie comes closer to John Connor.