The Owls claimed a well-deserved first win of the season as Paul Sturrock enjoyed a winning return to his former club Plymouth Argyle.
Substitute Sean McAllister claimed his first career goal early in the second half, after Wednesday had gone behind to Paul Wotton's 43rd minute penalty, and Burton O'Brien rounded off another fine move with a cool finish to secure the points for Sturrock's side.
The result was reward for the manful way the Owls battled despite losing Wade Small to a hamstring injury only 11 minutes into the contest, as Chris Brunt grafted up front, ably supported by an energetic midfield, rock-solid defence and some impressive goalkeeping from Brad Jones.
Wednesday made a bright start with Brunt attempting to catch Luke McCormick out with a quick free-kick that the Argyle keeper gathered and Small fired wide of the near post with his left foot before limping off with what looked like a hamstring problem.
McAllister came into midfield with Brunt pushing further forward as a lone attacker and the latter almost got some joy when he got a foot on McCormick's clearance, with the stopper struggling to adjust his feet on a surface fast becoming greasy as heavy rain replaced the sunny conditions in which the match had started.
Brunt failed to connect with a long pass from John Hills in front of goal while Wednesday were perhaps lucky not to concede a penalty, when David Norris tumbled under Glenn Whelan's challenge in the area. Wotton rifled a powerful free-kick just past the near post while Graham Coughlan narrowly failed to connect with an inswinging Brunt free-kick and the Irishman's flick-on from a long throw from Tommy Spurr also caused panic in the home defence until the Owls were penalised for a foul on McCormick.
The next occasion on which Wednesday were pulled up came in their own box and led to Plymouth taking the lead. Jones was harshly ruled to have brought down Barry Hayles when the pair collided after the striker charged down Jones' clearance outside his area from Frank Simek's backpass. Wotton stepped up to drill home his shot, low to Jones' right, giving Argyle an interval advantage.
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But Wednesday bounced back to level six minutes into the second period as McAllister got the Owls' first goal of the term from open play, expertly sidefooting home O'Brien's deep cross to the back post from the left flank to send the travelling Wednesdayites behind the goal wild.
And the Owls weren't far from getting themselves in front just before the hour, as Brunt's shot brushed the sidenetting from Kenny Lunt's knockdown with a deflection earning Wednesday a corner. The Northern Ireland international came even closer ten minutes later when his effort clipped the crossbar from a superb Whelan throughball.
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As Wednesday continued to look the more likely to score, Hills' angled drive was deflected just over after Simek broke down the right before O'Brien popped up to net in the 83rd minute, calmly lofting over the diving McCormick after chesting down a incisive throughball from Lunt.
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The Owls had to hold firm in the late stages as Jones made a fine block from Paul Connolly's shot and produced an even better stop to keep out Sylvan Ebanks-Blake's header. Hayles' shot looped onto the angle before Ebanks-Blake somehow headed a cross from the former Sheffield United man over the top. But Wednesday survived the barrage in seven minutes of injury time - after only three had been signalled - to get off the mark in terms of 2006-07 victories.
Plymouth: McCormick; Connolly, Kouo-Doumbe, Aljofree, Capaldi (Buzsaky 58); Norris, Wotton (Capt), Summerfield (Djordjic 60), Hodges; Hayles, Chadwick (Ebanks-Blake 71).
Subs: Buzsaky, Ebanks-Blake, Sawyer, Reid, Djrojic.
Wednesday: Jones; Simek, Coughlan (Capt - McArdle 90+3), Bougherra, Spurr; Lunt (Boden 90+3), Whelan, O'Brien, Hills; Brunt; Small (McAllister 11).
Subs: Adamson, McArdle, Boden, McClements, McAllister.
