Alex, Justin and Max Russo are three teenage wizards-in-training living in an apartment on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Their father Jerry Russo, a former wizard, provides his children with daily lessons in their secret lair on how to use magic responsibly. He administers this training in his spare time when not running the family business with his wife, Theresa, a sandwich shop designed to look like a subway station, on the ground level of their apartment building. According to the rules of the "Wizard World", once they complete their training, the Russo children will compete to determine which sibling will retain their powers permanently and become the sole wizard of the family. Since the other children will eventually lose their powers, Jerry tries to teach them not to become dependent on magic. Jerry descends from a family of wizards, and won his own family's competition as a teenager, but relinquished his powers when he married Theresa, a mortal. His powers were transferred to his younger brother, Kelbo. Alex must keep her powers hidden from her best friend, Harper Finkle, which causes an occasional strain on their relationship. Alex reveals her secret to Harper in the second season, however, the existence of wizards must remain hidden to the wider mortal world.
In the third season, Harper moves in with the Russo family, and Max's efforts to win the family wizard competition become more serious. Leading into the fourth season, Alex and Justin are both tricked into exposing the existence of wizards to government officials and a group of reporters. It is revealed that the whole scenario was a test devised as part of their training, and consequently, Alex and Justin are demoted to lower positions in the family competition. Alex is overwhelmed by her loss of progress and quits; she later rejoins to continue dating her werewolf boyfriend, Mason Greyback. Meanwhile, Justin adopts the role of tutor for a group of delinquent wizards, which assists him in recovering his position in the competition. At the conclusion of the series, the siblings compete to see who will retain their supernatural abilities. Alex wins the family wizard competition and is awarded full magic powers, while Justin is allowed to retain his abilities when he assumes the role of headmaster at WizTech, a boarding school for young wizards-in-training. Max loses his powers and is set to become the new manager of the family's sandwich shop instead.
