Following the death of the ancient Reverend Pottle, the inhabitants of rural backwater Dibley are looking forward to a younger, more mentally capable ecclesiastical figure. However, they'd be less surprised to see Mr Blobby popping up in their pulpit than the buxom Geraldine Granger - a female vicar!

The village church is having a usual evening service with its 5 attendees including the elderly vicar, who dies during the service. The parish council therefore convene in order to discuss the successor to the vicar; it is decided they'd like him to be younger than their recently deceased and rather senile 90+ one.

Geraldine arrives and brings great surprise to everyone she meets, because they're not used to female vicars. Everyone greets her and leaves lasting first impressions of their eccentricity. David is outraged that Dibley is used as a social experiment to see if female vicars "work" as well as male ones.

Geraldine takes some time to get to know Alice and find out some background about the village and its good inhabitants. In the meantime, David is leading a campaign to have Geraldine sacked before she's even started the job, but the rest of the parish council want to give her a chance. The first Sunday service arrives, and the church is packed full. Geraldine wears her heart on her sleeve as she preaches for the first time there. She's really popular and it looks like her stay will be a long one!