At Falcon Crest, Lance is dumbfounded when he sees Julia appear on the stairs. Greg and Angela manage to persuade Judge Leeds to transfer Julia's sentence to a convent in Oregon. Meanwhile, Angela plans to buy Sam Giannini's estate. Richard meets Cassandra Wilder, who attracts both Richard and his advertising account for Francesca wine. Greg continues to pursue Melissa until the day of the wedding. Dr. Mitchell informs Melissa that her auto accident has rendered her unable to bear any more children and Melissa fails to build the courage to tell Cole, who wants more children. However, Cole learns this in the worst possible way, through Angela. Feeling that Melissa has deceived him, Cole decides at the last minute that he cannot go through with the wedding and abandons Melissa at the altar in tears.

Melissa confronts Angela when she realizes that Angela had provoked Cole into walking out on their wedding. Although Melissa tries to seek comfort with Greg, she cannot put Cole out of her mind. After arguing with Melissa, Cole swallows his pride, reunites with her and marries her in a meadow in a small private ceremony. Lance proposes to Lorraine and surprisingly receives Angela's support. Unfortunately, Judge Holder has denied a change of venue for Lance's trial. Before Lorraine has a chance to discuss her pregnancy and engagement with Richard, Angela deviously provides him with the information. In turn, Richard confronts Lorraine, who begs him to be happy for her. Instead, Richard throws her out of the house, telling her that, as far as he's concerned, she is dead.

Greg coaches Lance on his trial testimony as they nervously wait to hear whether the trial will be postponed. Cole and Melissa happily honeymoon in Tahiti. Chase convinces Connie Giannini to keep the land she inherited upon her mother's death rather than sell it to Angela. At KRDC, Pamela advises Richard not to reject Lorraine just when she really needs him. When Richard resists Lorraine's attempt to reconcile, she has no choice but to remain at Falcon Crest, where she is quickly learning that Angela cares only about heirs. The next day at breakfast, Greg soberly announces to the family that the trial extension was denied. Horrified, Lance and Lorraine realize that he will go on trial that Monday.

Lance stands trial for the attempted murder of Angela, but his real court battle is against Richard Channing, who has secretly bribed the judge. Richard discovers that Greg and the prosecutor, Caroline Earle, have agreed to a deal that would considerably lighten his Lance's sentence. He passes this information to Judge Holder, who, on instruction, rejects such an arrangement. Cole and Melissa consider hiring a surrogate mother to bear them a child. Chase decides to hire Connie to help Cole with their champagne production. Cassandra and Damon come closer to an opportunity for revenge on Angela. Cassandra must keep their identity and plan hidden from Richard, who finds Cassandra intriguing. Melissa's cousin, Robin, arrives at the Gioberti household for an extended visit and hungrily sets her sights on Cole and the mansion.

Cole battles with Connie, resenting her interference in his champagne operation. However, Chase convinces her to stay on, not realizing she is thrilled to be working near him. In court, after the foreman announces that the jury cannot reach a verdict in Lance's case, Judge Holder orders the jury to deliberate again. After Maggie observes Richard and Holder meeting in the parking lot, she becomes determined to discover if they are conspiring against Lance. While Melissa fears the outcome if anyone discovers that she was responsible for Lance's arrest, her cousin Robin sees Melissa's search for a surrogate mother as the perfect opportunity to move closer to Cole. Cassandra and Damon use Richard and Cole to further establish themselves at Falcon Crest. After the foreman reads the verdict, Lance and his family hear Judge Holder sentence him to seven years in state prison.

Angela takes advantage of Lance's conviction to assume his job as publisher of The New Globe. Richard provokes Lance into a fight at a restaurant, forcing Lance into hiding to avoid being returned to custody. Angela realizes that if Falcon Crest expands to accommodate a contract with Helios Foods, Richard and Chase will fall heavily into debt, and she will once again be the sole owner of the wine empire. She pushes them to agree to bid on the contract. Maggie prefers that Chase sell out and get away from Angela, but he refuses. Cassandra and Damon push the Helios deal to advance their own plans for a takeover. Late that night, Robin tries to seduce Cole with the idea that they could give Melissa the child she wants.

Richard and Chase decide to go along with Angela and bid on the Helios deal. Chase looks to Maggie for support in his decision not to sell out, but she offers none. Melissa reluctantly pays Pamela $100,000 to keep silent about the hiring of Joel McCarthy to frame Lance. Terry not only confesses her past connections with Joel to Greg, but also tells Greg where to find him. Moreover, Terry suspects that it was Joel who ran Angela off the road. When Emma and Lorraine team up against Angela to find Lance, they discover that Angela and Chao-Li have him hidden in Chinatown. Angela's wicked plan to break up the Gioberti marriage unfolds when she offers Maggie the position of acting publisher for The Globe. Chase vehemently objects to the idea, but Maggie welcomes the challenge.

At the winery, Chase joins Connie and hugs her, announcing that he has received the loan necessary to bid with Angela. However, Connie's former suitor, Larry Michaelson, could threaten the bank deal. Cole realizes that Connie may be a threat of another kind. Greg hunts for Joel McCarthy and finds that he died at Camp Mary Jane of a drug overdose. He confronts Richard with his suspicions about Lance's framing, hoping he can force him to reveal his involvement. In Chinatown, Lance insists that Lorraine be included in Angela's plans to send him to Italy, and she makes the arrangements for them to meet at the boat. Pamela warns Angela that Richard and the police are on their way to Lance's hideout and Lance manages to escape. When Lorraine arrives and discovers that Lance is already gone, she rushes to the fire escape before her stepfather can detain her, and in a hurry, slips and plummets two stories to the street.

Lance ardently resists Angela's orders to board the ship until he gets an answer to why Lorraine is not there. Telephoning Falcon Crest, Lance learns that Lorraine is in the hospital, where she lies in a coma. Risking everything, he speeds off in Angela's car to see her. Lance is recognized at the hospital, but gets a chance to see Lorraine and encourages her to keep fighting before two policemen take him away. Awakening from her coma the next day, Lorraine begs Richard to get Lance out of jail. On a tip from a Turf Club bartender, Greg digs up the proof needed to convict Melissa. He confronts her, insisting she turn herself in within 48 hours. Cole is once again kept in the dark as to his wife's dealings. He receives shocking news about his own past actions, however, when Melissa's cousin, Robin, arrives again at their doorstep.

In the hospital, Lorraine, depressed, misses Lance and laments her lost baby. In his jail cell, Lance reveals to Angela his fears about Lorraine's survival. Angela reassures him and promises that Greg is working on freeing him. At The New Globe, Pamela hands Maggie a cassette, explaining that Richard had taped all his conversations, and she had decided to validate his mistrust in her. When Maggie and Greg play the tape, they hear Richard and Judge Holder plot against Lance. Melissa breaks the news to Cole that she hired Joel McCarthy to frame Lance. Cole strikes back by informing her that her surrogate mother idea worked because Robin is pregnant. Due to the overwhelming evidence against him, Judge Holder is forced to release Lance. Ecstatic, Lance rushes to the hospital, where a judge marries him and Lorraine.

Angela's scheme to regain control of Falcon Crest falls through when she assumes Chase and Richard will be bankrupt after a competitor wins the Helios bid. However, she is unaware that Cassandra Wilder holds the liens on their shares. Cassandra's mother, Anna Rossini, has come for long-awaited vengeance against Angela, now that her daughter owns two-thirds of Falcon Crest. At the winery, Connie offers to make Chase a partner in Giannini Winery. Maggie walks in and catches them in a celebratory embrace. Enraged, she announces she will be moving out that evening. Angela testifies on Melissa's behalf, which gives her a lenient sentence of 60 days in jail, in return for the Agretti harvest. As Lorraine's condition deteriorates rapidly due to brain damage, Lance must sign the release to remove her from life-support systems. As Maggie and Richard comfort each other that evening, an explosion rips through his house, trapping them.

Richard and Maggie survive the explosion, but Maggie suffers from amnesia. Chase takes Maggie home from the hospital to try to rebuild their marriage. Angela Channing is forced into revealing a long-kept secret in her fight to save her wine empire from the encroachments of a vengeful mother and daughter who intend to take over the historic estate. Julia had Dominic Rossini's child, but was told it was stillborn. In order to save Falcon Crest, Angela reveals that the child was raised in an orphanage and is Father Christopher. Meanwhile, Richard Channing sets himself up as a target to flush out the killer who was responsible for his and Maggie's injuries from the explosion. He also hires an attorney, Jordan Jennifer Roberts, to help him rescue his empire.

Angela reluctantly welcomes Father Christopher to the Tuscany Valley, knowing that he presents an added obstacle in her efforts to keep her wine empire intact. In his attempts to help Angela, Greg Reardon investigates Anna's past history, including her record of hospitalization. Richard Channing is the subject of further threats. Melissa is released from jail and returns home to find a disturbing situation between her husband and Robin. Lance finds solace in Terry's wiles. When Chase gets an unexpected windfall from Connie, Maggie questions her relationships at the time of the explosion.

In a frantic effort to save her empire, Angela Channing calls on the expertise, wealth and influence of an old friend, Peter Stavros. After Maggie questions Richard Channing about their relationship before the explosion, she moves to an isolated cabin to reassemble her life. Father Christopher takes interest in the vineyards' field workers, which antagonizes Melissa and distresses Angela. Melissa later has to turn to him when her home life proves unbearable. In a meeting with Cassandra and Anna, Peter Stavros makes them his first offer for the purchase of Falcon Crest. Angela is forced into telling Father Christopher the truth about his background.

When Chase tries to help Maggie regain her memory, she rebuffs his advances, reminding him that she doesn't remember him or their marriage. Peter Stavros asks Angela to marry him, but she can only think about saving Falcon Crest at the moment. As Father Christopher gets to know his family, Angela and Greg use him as proof that Anna had a motive to kill Dominic. Unnerved, Anna sneaks into Angela's bedroom and sets it ablaze. When Richard is shot at, he escapes injury because he wears a bulletproof vest. Jordan and Richard create a plan with Richard as the target that will draw out the assailant. Lance continues his reckless and despondent behavior.

When the manor house is torched, Lance saves Angela and Emma. Cassandra realizes her mother is the culprit in both fires. Because Maggie still suffers from amnesia, Chase suggests they renew their marriage vows with a second wedding. On the big day, Angela pours her own brand of vitriol on the ceremony by mentioning Chase's relationship with Connie Giannini. As Richard's would-be assassin tries again, he is caught. Father Christopher discovers some hard facts of life from Lance and Melissa. When Lance rescues a cocktail hostess, he learns that she is an aspiring singer and offers to help her career. Not realizing that Peter and Angela are intimately involved, Cassandra sells Falcon Crest to Peter.

Lance finances Apollonia's demo record and then takes her and her friends to Falcon Crest after an all-night recording session. When Lance's grandmother strongly disapproves of his involvement with Apollonia, he insists that she is his business partner. He then outwits Angela by reclaiming the publisher's position at The New Globe, which serves as the first step in obtaining his goals for Apollonia's career. When Maggie and Chase fight over Connie, it triggers old memories for Maggie, much to Angela's discomfort. Desperate for financing, Richard Channing takes a chance at his racetrack. Stavros blackmails Angela into agreeing to marry him. When Robin thwarts Melissa and Cole again, Melissa seeks solace with Father Christopher.

Without Angela's knowledge, Lance trades his interest in The New Globe for Richard Channing's radio station to have a showcase for Apollonia's singing career. Angela tries unsuccessfully to buy Terry's land and in retaliation goads Terry into investing in Tuscany Downs. Angela then persuades the Board of Supervisors to approve a new irrigation system, which would place the land on which Chase is working under water. As Maggie is recovering, she tells Angela off. In the meantime, Peter pushes Angela to set a date for their wedding. Father Christopher makes peace between Melissa, Cole and Robin, but Melissa gives him reason to worry when she tells him she doesn't love Cole anymore. At a honky-tonk, where Lance has arranged for Apollonia to demonstrate her singing, Emma meets a dashing truck driver named Dwayne.

When Angela discovers that Lance has shifted from publisher to rock radio impresario, she expels him from the mansion. After an all-night tryst in Dwayne's truck, Emma returns home to Angela. Peter's attentions finally make an impression on Angela, and she begins to take his marriage proposal seriously. Although Richard Channing and Cassandra Wilder mistrust one another, they plan a new beginning. Melissa tries to tell Father Christopher about her feelings for him. In a plan to save their land, Chase and Maggie enlist the help of Sheriff Gilmore, Terry and Wicker.

At the party announcing her engagement to Peter Stavros, Angela shocks the gathered guests by revealing that Cole is the father of Robin's baby. Still smarting from having been outmaneuvered by Chase on the valley's water conservation project, Angela prepares an unusual method of revenge. Moreover, she sues Lance and Richard over their newspaper and radio station swap. In order to showcase Apollonia's songs, Lance changes his station from all-talk to all-rock. After Melissa receives her annulment from Lance, Father Christopher urges her and Cole to sanctify their marriage in the eyes of the church. Richard questions Jordan about her past and is puzzled by her reaction.

Although Angela is reluctant to change her name to Stavros and relinquish running her wine empire to marry Peter, they finally set the date. Refusing to lose Dwayne, Emma asks him to marry her. Richard proposes to Cassandra, believing he can only trust her if they are married. Cole and Melissa agree to a church wedding, but the bride becomes distraught when Father Christopher must perform the ceremony. Greg's persistence pays off when Jordan agrees to a date with him. Maggie receives an advance check for a novel she doesn't remember writing. A man from Apollonia's past re-enters her life and his actions disturb Lance. Angela loses her court battle to override Lance's exchange with Richard for the radio station.

With Emma's love-life flourishing, Lance defying her and Chase stealing her distributors, Angela's life continues to be rife with challenges. When Angela's attempt to bribe Dwayne to leave her daughter fails, Angela offers her blessing for their marriage if he sells his trucking business. However, Emma shows an amazing ability to cope with her mother and her demands. To shut Chase down, Angela blackmails the valley's agriculture inspector to get Chase's vineyards quarantined. Reardon makes Angela honor her promise to help him enter politics. Lance is able to show Apollonia the real Walker McDowell. Richard jilts Cassandra, who is pregnant, while Robin is about to give birth.