Nancy is an aspiring journalist, and an ally to "the Party". She is the older sister of Mike Wheeler , the former girlfriend of Steve Harrington , and the current girlfriend of Jonathan Byers. In the fall of , Nancy was a straightforward teenager with a straightforward life, unsure whether to prioritize spending time with her best friend Barbara Holland , or with her new boyfriend, Steve Harrington. However, everything changed when Barb vanished without a trace, prompting Nancy to team up with loner Jonathan Byers , whose younger brother, Will , had also vanished.
Slowly, the two put together the pieces of the puzzle, and realized a monster from another dimension had kidnapped Barb and Will. While Will was lucky enough to escape the creature's full wrath, Nancy was horrified to learn that Barb had been killed, making her more determined than ever to defeat the creature. Nancy and Jonathan set up a booby-trap at the Byers house , and with the unlikely last-minute assistance of Steve, helped to gravely wound the creature.
In the fall of , Nancy's struggle to grieve Barb created a rift between her and Steve, leading her to drunkenly confess that she didn't love him anymore. Seeking revenge on the people responsible for unleashing the creature that killed Barbara, she once again teamed up with Jonathan and a journalist named Murray Bauman to expose Hawkins Lab. In the process, she and Jonathan grew closer together, eventually succumbing to their feelings and becoming romantically involved.
Returning to Hawkins, Nancy and Jonathan learned that another entity from the alternate dimension had possessed Will; Nancy assisted Jonathan and his mother in exorcising the creature from Will's body.
Nancy attended Barb's funeral and broke up with Steve to be with Jonathan. Working late one night, she answered a call about diseased rats in the town and secretly investigated with Jonathan. This eventually caused the pair to be fired, creating a rift between Nancy and Jonathan. But after receiving some encouragement from her mother, Nancy picked the story back up and discovered that the rats were linked to the same entity that possessed Will. After reconciling, Nancy and Jonathan joined forces with Nancy's younger brother and his friends in once again defeating what the kids called "the Mind Flayer".
