Successful editor Stephanie Wells moves from Seattle to a fancy, luxurious apartment in Central Park West along with her writer husband Mark Merrill. She's been offered a job as the editor of the trendy magazine 'Communique', owned by the very wealthy Allen Rush. Allen is married to Linda Fairchild Rush and is the stepfather of her grown-up children Peter and Carrie. Carrie writes a column in 'Communique' for a ridiculously high salary and her bitchy attitude immediately gets her in a conflict with her new boss Stephanie. Peter, however, has a very successful career as a lawyer at the district attorney's office and is doing good. His good friend Gil Chase works as a broker and dumps his girlfriend Deanne Landers after he's thrown away all her money on a bad investment. She then shows up at his work and promises to get back at him. Peter, Gil, Carrie and their friend Nikki Sheridan, a talented SoHo art gallery owner, play soft ball in a park and are joined in the game by the beautiful A

Alex tries in vain to convince her editor John to drop the article on Peter. Tired of Carrie's intrigues, Stephanie drops her column. A vengeful Carrie goes to Mark and tells him she's got a producer for his play. Deanne shows up at Gil's apartment, takes off her clothes and says she's willing to forgive him. Gil pulls back at the last minute and Deanne swears a terrible revenge. Stephanie is arranging a party but Mark can't attend as he's meeting with Carrie about the production of his play. Steph thinks Carrie's intentions are rotten. Carrie tells Mark that she is the producer interested in the play and convinces him to go along with the plan. Linda suspects Allen of cheating with Stephanie. Gil takes a sexy model, Monique, home with him to have sex. However, Deanne still has a key to Gil's flat and goes there and pretends she is Gil's girlfriend. Peter and Alex are falling very much in love. Alex reveals the truth as the article on Peter hits the newsstand. The article includes much

Gil calls the cops on Deanne but the police have a hard time believing that Deanne is keeping him ""hostage"" in his own apartment. Stephanie hires fancy fashion editor Rachel Dennis from London to work at 'Communique'. Rachel, who has just divorced her husband in London, turns out to be an old friend of Carrie's and she is to stay in Carrie's apartment until she finds her own. Since all of City hall knows about the investigation of the mayor's office, Jack wants Peter to see Alex again and fool her to print wrongful information about the investigation to throw everyone off track. Reluctantly, Peter takes Alex out to dinner and gives her the fake information. Gil comes home and finds his apartment stripped as Deanne has run off and given all his stuff to the Salvation Army. But that's not all: Deanne has the code to Gil's computer at work, and causes massive problems for him. Carrie warns Stephanie that Rachel is after her job and shouldn't be trusted. Stephanie refuses to believe her. M

Mark wakes up from a sexual fantasy about Carrie. Stephanie arranges monitoring of all the computers and gives out key cards in her attempt to catch the leak. Allen apologizes to Nikki and convinces her to come back to him as he reveals he's about to divorce Linda. Mark has several new ideas for his play and is upset that it seems to be nearly impossible to get in touch with Ian. Rachel seduces Gil to learn more about Peter. Stephanie clashes with one of her editors, Tom Chasen, over an article she won't print. Rachel asks Peter to help her with her temporary visa which is about to expire. Mark forces himself into a meeting with Ian. Ian calls Stephanie and orders her to get Mark to back off. Rachel tries to discourage Alex about her relationship with Peter. Alex convinces John to let her dig up dirt on Rahcel for a story to The Globe. Rachel continues to scheme by making sure Tom's bashed article gets printed in the next issue of 'Communique'. She has used Carrie's key card. Worried t

Following Carrie's dismissal and the rumors about false circulation figures at ‘Communique', John assigns Alex and gossip columnist Lisa Monroe to write a story about it. Lisa has big sources inside 'Communique' but Alex has a hard time getting people to talk. Allen and Linda celebrate their 13th anniversary but after a fight with Carrie, he leaves to ""celebrate"" with Nikki instead. After a 'Communique' reviewer gives one of his plays a bad review, Ian confronts Stephanie with breaking their deal and threatens to tell all to Mark the truth. Alex asks Allen about Carrie dismissal. Furious, he throws her out and orders Peter to get her to back off. Rachel goes ballistic when she learns her divorce settlement has gone straight to hell because her infidelity is on tape. Gil discusses investments with Stephanie and Mark. Later, Mark goes through their finances and finds the $10,000 debit on Stephanie's private account. Steph lies about where the money went to but Mark later finds out she's