After a bitter argument with Angela regarding plans for him to marry Melissa Agretti, the wine empire heiress, Lance leaves in a fury. After he nearly runs over a girl, he falls in love with her and decides to move to San Francisco to be close to the girl. However, when Angela attempts to stop him, Lance succumbs and leaves the love of his life. In an old room that Jason had walled up, Chase finds some writings, which lead him to believe that Angela may have been involved in crippling a girl forty years ago. Confronted with the evidence, Angela turns the tables on Chase, playing a small excerpt of a recording that leaves Chase believing that his father hated him.

Due to Melissa's peculiar behavior, Lance loses his chance to join an exclusive club, which alienates him from Joseph. After Richard becomes the new distributor for Angela's wines, Angela hires a new lawyer. Vicky and Angela become concerned about Dan's preoccupation with Suzanne. Richard tries to recruit Peter in his vendetta against Angela. Lance enlists Chase and Maggie to help him with Joseph.

Angela interferes in the lives of Chase, Richard, Maggie, Vickie and Dan. Vickie and Dan's romance is complicated by Angela's peculiar moral code. When Angela accuses Richard of fathering Maggie's expected child, her manipulations make Chase's altruistic defense of troubled vineyard owners seem like a play for personal gain, which puts a wedge in his relationship with Gabrielle. Melissa's troubled behavior brings a closer understanding between Lance and Tony. Peter plans to win Angela back and break Richard at the same time, while Richard thinks Kit Marlowe can be played to bring Peter to his side.

When Maggie prematurely gives birth to her baby at Falcon Crest, Angela conspires with rich newcomer Roland Saunders in her plans to destroy Richard. Angela finds a kindred spirit in Saunders, ""the rudest billionaire in the Fortune 500."" When Richard offers to sign the birth certificate of Maggie's baby, Chase surprises them by signing it himself. The idea of the new baby troubles Emma. Lance questions his father about Kolinski, while Tony has to lie to his son to protect Kit. During Angela's international wine show at the spa, the matron of Falcon Crest arrives with Saunders, and Peter disapproves.

When Maggie prematurely gives birth to her baby at Falcon Crest, Angela conspires with rich newcomer Roland Saunders in her plans to destroy Richard. Angela finds a kindred spirit in Saunders, ""the rudest billionaire in the Fortune 500."" When Richard offers to sign the birth certificate of Maggie's baby, Chase surprises them by signing it himself. The idea of the new baby troubles Emma. Lance questions his father about Kolinski, while Tony has to lie to his son to protect Kit. During Angela's international wine show at the spa, the matron of Falcon Crest arrives with Saunders, and Peter disapproves.

Peter threatens Angela and Roland Saunders as he tries to discover their connection to Kit Marlowe. Due to Angela's interest in Maggie's baby, Maggie concludes that she must give the baby up for adoption if the child is to lead a decent life. After Maggie refuses to allow Emma and Karlotti have her child, the two instead apply to adopt a child. While Angela plans Dan and Vickie's engagement party, she promises to give them a vineyard. Peter forces Tony to tell him about Kit. After Chase makes Gabrielle a proposition, he offers Lance a partnership with him and Tony. Angela plans to solve the mystery of Kit Marlowe.

At Angela's engagement party for them, Vicky and Dan set the tone of the party by trying to avoid it. After Kit demonstrates a need to tell Tony good-bye, both Richard and Peter confront Saunders. Maggie arrives looking for her baby, which she now knows is Chase's. After Emma confounds Angela by introducing her adopted son, one of the guests is found dead in the winery.

Tony and Lance assist each other as circumstantial evidence implicates them in murder, but it is to no avail when Angela goes back on her word. Angela breaks her promise to Lance when she realizes that it is more important to protect her grandson than his father. Vickie and Eric's actions at the party make Dan face a dilemma. Francine Hope is able to help Maggie and Chase, who are then able to contact the lawyer who arranged the adoption of their baby. Richard is finally able to realize his revenge on Angela. When Melissa entertains as ""Veronique, the Slumming Socialite"" on amateur night at a San Francisco nightclub, she becomes all the rage.

District Attorney Wilkinson is highly pleased when Angela suggests he campaign for attorney general, with her help, if he agrees to convict her ex-son-in-law, Tony, of murder. Wilkinson digs until he makes sure that he can nail Tony. Angry at Peter for his involvement with Richard, Angela seeks a divorce. When Maggie and Chase are unable to find the adoptive parents of their child, Maggie pleads a mother's appeal in the media while Chase offers a reward. Gabrielle accepts Chase's offer to be in charge of his wine operations. Vicky has no one to turn to except Eric. Melissa continues her double life as a chanteuse.

As Tony begins to mistrust Kit, Angela ensnares Melissa, and Richard attempts to console Maggie. Richard plans a trip for Maggie to overcome her melancholy, but a ghost from the past interrupts. Melissa's secret world tumbles when Angela finds out about it. Chase decides to file for a divorce. Tony suspects that Kit Marlowe may have used him in order to remove suspicion from her. Angela offers Dan a new job. Lance offers hope to Chao-Li. Although Emma traps Karlotti with plans for a church wedding, her offer of community property turns him from a man in hot water to one who has just struck the mother lode.

When Emma and Karlotti's church wedding concludes, Emma discovers how great her husband really is. As the couple stands up before Father Bob for their nuptials, Karlotti's reputation as a lover is enhanced. In her attempts to bring Lance back home, Angela humiliates Melissa in front of Lance, Richard and Dan. Maggie and Chase search for clues to find their baby in Boston. When Lance discovers Kit's whereabouts, he plans to intercept her in his quest to help his father. Wilkerson reports to Angela that he has Tony ""nailed to the wall."" Vickie and Eric return from their escapade.

When Kit comes to Tony's defense, the gesture proves worthless. Tony's trial proceeds as if D.A. Wilkinson had scripted it, until Kit arrives at the courtroom. After Chase uncovers evidence that Melissa had engineered the botched paternity test, he is too late to intercept her due to Angela's threats. Chao-Li loses face because Angela and Lance stay up all night to take care of him. After Chase and Maggie decide on a quick divorce, Richard sees his chance for happiness.

Melissa's desperate attempts to keep the baby result in a car chase that ends when the car carrying her, Chase, Maggie, Richard and Dan plunges into San Francisco Bay. Angela discovers that her child, whom she previously believed to have died in childbirth, is alive and ready to return to haunt her. When Angela and Peter reconcile and she tries to buy Peter's freedom, Peter, facing murder charges, flees with Kit.

Angela learns the truth about her supposedly deceased child. The car chase has endangered Melissa, Chase, Richard, Dan and Maggie's lives. After taking a disastrous fall, Chao-Li lies at the foot of the stairs. Emma, frustrated with her mother's meddling, stands high above Falcon Crest and threatens to jump.

A French woman and a mercenary soldier from Chase's past intrude on the lives of Angela and Maggie and force them to face unpleasant consequences. Angela's wiles work on Chao-Li. Emma believes she is embarking on a new life as a businesswoman. After Lance moves in with Dina amid Melissa's accusations that he cares more for his car than he does for her, Melissa attempts to make peace with Lance.

Maggie and Richard decide to try again, while Angela proves uncharacteristically supportive. When Lance moves back into the manor house, Angela joyfully greets him with the news that Carly will be staying for a few days. In a misguided attempt to help Emma, Curtis digs dirt on Richard. At Lance's instigation, Melissa enters into an elaborate masquerade to rescue Emma. In his effort to break the codicil to Chase's will, Richard enrolls some dangerous assistance. When Gabrielle returns to the valley on the anniversary of Chase's death, she gives Maggie some hopeful news.