Richard, thrilled with his one-third ownership of Falcon Crest, makes plans to acquire more harvests. He reveals to Terry that he knows Joel is blackmailing her and promises to help her if she sells him her harvest. In the fake hospital, Spheeris and Riebmann continue to torment Julia, telling her that Angela has granted them permission to perform a frontal lobotomy on her. Ben Landale, claiming to work for the U.S. Government, arrives at Falcon Crest with orders to look for Johann Riebmann. With Melissa and Lance's divorce finalized, Melissa agrees to marry Cole. Mike Harris, who is secretly working with Angela, finds Maggie's mother, Charlotte Pershing, and takes her to the radio station. Angela informs Greg that she located Maggie's mother because her compulsive gambling habits will create major problems for Chase and Maggie.

Angela reinstates Lance as her sole heir, cutting Melissa out of the will. Posing as her psychiatrist, Gustav manipulates Julia into trusting him. Ben and Chase check Falcon Crest for surveillance devices and when Gustav hears them discuss Henri DeNault with Angela, he orders Spheeris to investigate Ben immediately. Greg's advances towards Melissa are putting a strain on Cole's trust in Melissa. Joel returns the necklace he stole from Terry and presents her with an engagement ring. She hesitantly agrees to marry him in two weeks. At the Turf Club, Angela tries to make Charlotte succumb to her weakness for gambling. Chase keeps Maggie in the dark about his plans with Ben to search for Johann Riebmann in Europe.

Melissa, enraged over being written out of Angela's will, solicits Joel's help by offering him $50,000 to discredit Lance in Angela's eyes. Joel tricks Lance into meeting him privately and locks him in a deserted warehouse. Disguising himself as Lance, he uses Lance's Porsche to drive Angela off the road. As the real Lance is released from the warehouse, he is promptly arrested for the attempted murder of Angela Channing. Angela reveals her plan to Reardon to ally with Richard in order to get Chase to cease his champagne operation. Gustav orders Spheeris to follow Chase and Ben to Paris, where they are searching for clues to Johann Riebmann's whereabouts. When Ben and Chase are trapped in a set-up, Ben is killed. At Richard's racetrack, Charlotte begins to lose control over her gambling impulses.

Lance calls Falcon Crest to get bailed out, but Angela grabs the phone and tells him that he can rot in jail. Ralph Delaney arrives and says that The New Globe will pay Lance's bail. Richard wants Maggie to do a story on Lance and exploit his situation. When Lorraine hears this, she is furious and accuses Richard of slanting the news. Chase tightens security at home and purchases a gun. He learns from Herb Boutilier in Washington, D.C. that Ben never worked for the government and receives a phone call warning him to stop looking for Ben. Charlotte and her old gambling partner meet and begin to lose money at the track. Richard sends Joel to a drug rehabilitation center in order to get him away from Terry. Although Lance insists he was framed, Angela refuses to believe him, and he is again disinherited. Lance moves in with Lorraine at the Tuscany Inn.

Maggie may be Lance's only hope to prove his innocence as she investigates his case for her story. She goes to Angela with the evidence in support of Lance, and to his amazement, Angela admits that she now believes his story and promises to help him by letting Greg Reardon defend him, provided that he stop seeing Lorraine. Lance and Lorraine part miserably, planning to reunite after he is acquitted. Charlotte is unsuccessful in retrieving Maggie's pearls from the pawnshop, and Maggie cries when she discovers them missing. From his surveillance room, Riebmann hears Angela's plans to make Lorraine her heir, and soon begins to court her. Cole and Chase discover a shocking plan to undermine their champagne production.

After years of hard work, Chase and Cole dump hundreds of gallons of tainted champagne as Richard and Angela look on. Chase is convinced one of them is responsible for the poisoning. Richard's obsession with trying to destroy Lance prompts Maggie to quit her job at the radio station. Shaken over her mother's sudden disappearance, Maggie travels to Los Angeles to find her. Upon meeting with his stepfather, Alexander Nicolau, Chase uncovers his mother's dangerous connections with the cartel and is determined to uncover why Riebmann so fervently wants Tuscany Valley. Back in Tuscany Valley, reporters and spectators jam the courthouse for Lance's preliminary hearing. Richard is immensely pleased with Judge Holder's ruling that Lance must still stand trial for attempted murder.