As Maggie is haunted by nightmares over her husband Richard's death, Angela surprises her friends and family with her calm resignation over losing control of the winery empire, while Melissa mercilessly wields her newfound power over everyone within her domain, down to the field hands and household help. As Maggie must take control over Richard's vast financial empire, she tries to cope with the agony of his murder by the underground group, The Thirteen. After leaving years ago after a dispute with her family, Pilar Ortega, not only the daughter of the vineyard foreman at Falcon Crest but also now a bank vice president, returns and provokes intense curiosity throughout the valley.

While Maggie is stunned by the return of her supposedly deceased husband Richard, Angela Channing decides to remain in the Tuscany Valley and fight for her family's land. While Richard reveals startling news about The Thirteen, the underground group which had supposedly killed him and which included the son of Peter Stavros, Maggie can't understand why she wasn't allowed to know that Richard was still alive. Meanwhile, Angela launches a new legal attack on Melissa for control of the Falcon Crest vineyards. Melissa's erratic behavior worries those around her. As Emma begins work on an article about an enigmatic mystery writer, Carly decides to leave the Tuscany Valley.

When Angela offers District Attorney Fields her support for the governorship in exchange for dropping the murder charges against Lance, he indignantly refuses; however, when Richard offers to hire Field's leukemic son to join the staff of The New Globe, Fields agrees to the deal. Lance, on the other hand, is not grateful; he wanted to prove his innocence in court. Although not charged with any crime, Maggie is guilt-ridden by the fact that she killed Senator Ryder, even though she did it in order to save Richard's life. After Nick Agretti is enraptured when he witnesses Pilar swimming nude, Angela informs him that she has learned some information he cannot release, revealing that the price for keeping the secret is Falcon Crest itself.

As Christmas arrives in Tuscany Valley, Frank agonizes over whether or not to leave his family to mine emeralds with Libby. Ben turns against Nick for lying to him about his mother. Unaware of Richard's assistance, Maggie is delighted with the overwhelming response to her special advertising offer. Richard offers to back Pilar's failing consortium through a blind company for a controlling interest. When Daniel Cabot discovers Emma's true identity, he abandons her. Although Angela celebrates the holiday by surrounding herself with family, Pilar's holiday is spoiled when she spots her brothers Tommy and Paco being chased by security officers. However, Christmas dinner at Pilar's home brings Nick and Ben closer together and Nick to admit his love for his father.

Mercedes and her husband pressure Pilar to sign papers allowing them to adopt Lisa. Although Pilar realizes that Mercedes is the only mother the child has ever known, the thought of a final, legal adoption is more than Pilar can bear. When Pilar goes to Lance for consolation, she discovers him with an attractive young woman. After Angela is outmaneuvered for the purchase of a bottling company, she is determined to learn who is behind the consortium. After Maggie's newspaper office is mysteriously trashed a few days before the first edition, Emma discovers that Cabot has been lying to her about his true identity.

Angela's hands-on approach to Emma's forthcoming wedding may prove futile when the bride and groom call the festivities off. After Emma breaks the news to Angela that the wedding is off, her prospective bridegroom, R.D. Young, apologizes for his behavior and announces that the wedding is on schedule again. During the wedding rehearsals, Young's nervousness escalates and he convinces Emma to elope. After Pilar accepts Lance's apology about Cookie Nash, their romance resumes. Nick fails to persuade Ben to curtail his relations with the Cellini family, despite his warning that the family is dangerous. An unannounced visitor adds turmoil to Tuscany Valley.

As Angela continues to press for information on the consortium, Pilar divulges surprising news to Lance. After Angela follows the paper trail leading from the consortium to Richard's company, she confronts Richard. Making peace, Nick and Anna reach an accord about Ben. In conclusion, Pilar drops a bombshell piece of news on Lance: he is Lisa's father.

Despite pressure from Angela, Lance refuses to marry Cookie, but he offers her full financial support. Angela inadvertently uncovers Richard's duplicity in the Troilus affair. As Anna and Nick rekindle their love, happiness seems assured for the reunited family. However, Anna continues to hide the facts of her fatal illness and Ben receives a card from Frank telling him that the emerald mine is coming through. Pilar makes it very clear to both Sinclair and Richard that she will side with whomever makes it most worth her while. Sinclair's marriage proposal comes three years too late for Pilar, who turns it down. However, she gladly accepts Lance's proposal to become his wife.

Despite Angela's obvious opposition, Lance and Pilar decide to marry. Maggie, appalled at Richard's plans for the valley, leaves him. Hoping to prevent Lance and Pilar's marriage, Angela, who has made a deal with Sinclair, tells Lance that Pilar was well aware of Richard's business dealings; however, Pilar convinces him otherwise, and the wedding is definitely on. After Nick learns the seriousness of Anna's condition, he convinces her to allow him and Ben to care for her, provided that Ben not be told of her illness. After Raoul and his gang run Ben and Gabriel off the road, the gang leaves them unconscious on the roadside.

Maggie's rebuff of Richard's attempts at reconciliation cause unexpected results. Upon hearing news of the car accident, Lance and Pilar immediately return home. With Ben and Gabriel in serious condition, Anna feels guilty over having given Ben the car. While the hospital staff quibbles about accepting Gabriel, he goes into convulsions, requiring immediate surgery. Angela, though not approving of the marriage, invites the newlyweds to make their home at Falcon Crest. In response to Maggie's rebuff, Richard pressures a judge for a court order that transfers custody of the boys to him. Accompanied by the Sheriff, Richard removes the children from Falcon Crest.

Michael, despondent at his mother's continued absence, runs away. Richard moves to block Angela's latest power play, while Frank Agretti returns to the Tuscany Valley. While Angela is prepared to help Maggie wrest custody of the children from Richard, Richard prepares to clip Angela's wings decisively in the matter of Glenbraddoch. Meanwhile, Michael's disappearance causes concern. Learning of Ben's accident, Frank Agretti returns to the valley, while Pilar and Lance agree to try to make their home at Falcon Crest.

As Anna grows increasingly weaker, she desperately tries to convince Frank and Nick to help end her pain. After Maggie dissolves in tears after a phone conversation with Michael, Tommy consoles her, revealing his true feelings for her. On a business trip to Chicago, Richard encounters a glamorous woman who is a dead ringer for Melissa. Pretending that it will help his ill mother, Richard convinces his new conquest, Samantha Ross, to return to San Francisco and impersonate Melissa. After Richard agrees to Samantha's hefty price, the deal is cemented.

As Pilar and Sinclair plot against Richard, Samantha and Richard continue to scheme against Angela, while Nick Agretti investigates the background of a forged document. When Lance discovers one deed too many in Angela's safe and burns the document, he is unaware that he has been observed by Pilar, who has joined forces with Sinclair to undermine Richard in his upcoming investigation by the S.E.C. Richard misunderstands Tommy's presence in Maggie's hotel suite. Samantha helps Angela to escape from one of Richard's ploys.

Having escaped with Samantha's help, Angela finds her family doubting her kidnapping story, but Pilar gains Angela's confidence with her plan to help her regain control of the Glenbraddoch stock. At the court hearing, Richard wins custody of the children. Angela agrees to protect Samantha from Richard's wrath and calls Lance to pick her up in San Francisco. However, Samantha disappears before he arrives. When Richard warns Pilar about opposing him, he plays a tape that has been edited to indict both her and Sinclair and which will exonerate Richard. Richard also obtains a warrant ordering Angela into custody for a psychiatric evaluation to determine her mental competency.

While undergoing observation in the psychiatric ward, Angela is harassed by other patients. Richard emerges triumphant in winning custody of the children but begins to have qualms about his relationship with Samantha, while Ben becomes increasingly despondent after the death of Anna. Maggie exposes the hospital's negligent treatment of Gabriel, while Nick continues his drive to regain Falcon Crest. Richard dupes Samantha into leaving for Paris. At her judicial review, Angela creates a scene that could prove detrimental to her case.

As Angela's competency hearing proceeds, it becomes obvious that her case is weak, and Maggie's reputation begins to slide because of rumors about her relationship with Tommy. When Frank discovers that the feud between the Agrettis and the Giobertis had begun when the title to Falcon Crest changed hands during a crooked card game, he tries to convince Nick to let sleeping dogs lie. After selling some of her recently acquired Glenbraddoch stock to Lance, Pilar proposes to establish a trauma center in the Ortega name, with her terms including banishment for everyone involved in Gabriel's case. When the court declares Angela mentally incompetent, Angela rocks the court with a startling revelation.

Having successfully frustrated Richard's plans by marrying Frank Agretti, Angela returns to Falcon Crest, where her family rallies to her side and plans are devised for Richard's total downfall. When Samantha returns to Chicago from Paris, Richard tells her to forget their association or she will have to pay consequences. Nonetheless, when Samantha arrives at Falcon Crest, she provides evidence that Richard was involved in Angela's kidnapping. Consequently, Pilar and Angela work with the S.E.C. to facilitate Richard's financial ruin.

After being found unconscious, Angela is rushed to the hospital, where she slips into a coma. Lance has a difficult time managing Falcon Crest without Angela, particularly when business associates insist on negotiating with Angela, but fortunately, Pilar is able to help Lance deal with their distributor, Ned Vogel. Richard discovers that Michael was instrumental in Richard's loss of custody over his children. A power outage at the hospital forces the family to consider pulling the plug on Angela's life support.

Due to Richard's testimony, the S.E.C. slaps Michael Sharpe with the largest fine in history. Lauren and her husband confront Michael about his schemes and their custody of Richard's children. Frank's obsession with the treacherous Genele escalates. Charley is relieved to hear that Emma's husband has apparently committed suicide, since his death removes the last obstacle for Charley to marry Emma. When the court gives control of Falcon Crest to Emma, she is overwhelmed by the notion of running the business. Emma's new husband Charley, however, has many ideas about running Falcon Crest.

Charley hires his brother Ian and his young, child-like wife, Sidney, to help run the winery. Since the new arrivals put Charley at odds with Lance, the two fight. After Lance soundly beats Charley, Charley immediately fires him. After rescuing his sons, Richard learns that they liked Lauren and returns them to Lauren's care, despite the fact that she is Sharpe's sister. After Pilar and Lance confront Emma about Charley, he throws a bacchanal party, which is crashed by bikers. Ned Vogel, who has taped evidence of Pilar securing his distribution contract through sexual favors, blackmails her. At Angela's bedside, Emma thinks she hears her comatose mother command her to get rid of Charley, but Emma isn't sure whether or not she imagined it.

Michael Sharpe convinces Ian and Charley to sell Falcon Crest to him, but Emma backs out. When Sharpe informs Ian and Charley that he has information on them that could put them in jail, Charley agrees to kill Emma and forge her signature. Charley is stopped in his tracks, however, when an unsuspecting Emma informs him that she is pregnant. Lance becomes embroiled in a deadly game of Russian roulette involving scorpions.

Charley keeps the pressure on Emma to sell to Sharpe, despite the fact that she is pregnant. After Charley tells Ian about Sydney's affair with Chris Agretti at the winery, the two brothers agree to kill their wives for deceiving them. Richard lets Lauren know how much she means to him. After Frank sees Sydney and Ian in a struggle, he tries to help, but when Ian gets the upper hand, Sydney saves Frank by killing Ian with a letter opener. Charley chases after Emma, but Emma shoots him in the chest.

As payback for Jace Sampson's cooperation in Sharpe's takeover of Falcon Crest, Richard talks Jace into making an investment after which Jace loses all his money. Pilar and Lance's estrangement worsens. After Walker catches Richard and Lauren kissing, he confronts them with dynamite strapped to his chest, which is set to go off when the timer runs out. Rather than kill Lauren and the boys along with Richard, Walker runs outside just as the dynamite explodes.

When Genele forces Frank out of his own home in order to entertain her lover Sharpe, Frank delivers the remains of Genele's sister and Frank's ex-wife Renee to the police, informing them that Genele killed her ten years before. Sydney tries to push Pilar and Lance back together. Sharpe is displeased when Lauren moves in with Richard after her ordeal with Walker. Sharpe tries to act as a business mentor for Danny.

Richard and Sharpe search for Lauren, who had grown tired of their fighting and ran off to work as a waitress in a diner. Sharpe attempts to convince Danny to drop Sydney, who wants Falcon Crest to return to the Channing's. When Lance and Pilar ask Sharpe what it would take for him to sell them Falcon Crest, Sharpe tells them to break up Sydney and Danny. When Lauren returns to Richard and the boys, she has to deal with Richard's continuing obsession with his dead wife Maggie.

After Genele intercepts stolen bonds that Sharpe is trafficking, she arranges for Richard to cash them. Lance, Pilar and Danny believe that things are finally turning around for the winery. Genele has to pay hush money to a witness, but Richard has decided to keep all the money as revenge for Genele's past deceit. When Richard has the bonds cashed under the name Sharpe, Sharpe assumes his son Danny did it under Sydney's influence. After Sharpe tampers with Sydney's car, Danny happens to borrow her car and ends up in an accident.

Danny has a severe head injury as a result of crashing Sydney's car, which Sharpe had tampered with to get at Sydney. Danny's mother, Anne Bowen, and Sharpe decide to approve a dangerous operation to remove a bone shard from Danny's spinal cord. Discouraged by the bad luck she seems to bring to all her boyfriends, Sydney leaves Falcon Crest. Suspecting that Sharpe was behind the car accident, Richard and Lance track down the auto mechanic, Sacco, who did the tampering. Alerted to Richard and Lance's involvement, Sharpe sends his chauffeur Nick to ensure that Sacco doesn't talk.

Sharpe reels from the news that his hated rival Richard is Danny's father. Richard's plans to run the winery with Lauren run into a snag when Angela returns after regaining consciousness. When Richard informs Angela that she has no legal claim to the winery, Angela pretends to give in, but she is secretly planning to block Richard's marriage to Lauren with the help of Michael Sharpe.

After Danny learns that Richard is his father, he goes to Sharpe to tell him it doesn't matter, but Sharpe throws him out of his office and tells him that they should go their separate ways. Because Danny has no job and nowhere to live, Lauren invites him to live with her and Richard, but Richard wants nothing to do with Danny. After witnessing this callous side of Richard, Lauren considers calling off their wedding. When Danny threatens suicide, however, Richard and Sharpe agree to help him, which reassures Lauren. With the wedding back on schedule, Angela must find another way to stop it.

As Richard and Lauren enjoy their wedding at the winery, Richard agrees to sell Falcon Crest back to Angela on the condition that half will go to his sons in the event of her death. Lance, however, will receive ten percent now and the remainder after Angela's death. As the wedding reception draws to a close, Angela recalls all the people who passed through Tuscany Valley during the last decade and toasts the future of Falcon Crest.