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.

Although Sheriff Gilmore can find no grounds to arrest Jeff, Chase manages to get an order barring Jeff from having any direct contact with Maggie. However, when Maggie finds notes from Jeff, she realizes that he is still constantly spying on her from a distance. Melissa and Eric hold a groundbreaking ceremony for their new winery. By accusing Eric of treachery and ordering him out of the house, Angela angers Peter. Jordan begs for Greg's understanding. Dwayne finds a honeymoon cottage for Emma, much to her dismay. When Cole catches Li-Ying trespassing and surveying for earthquakes on the Gioberti's land, he confronts her. Chase asks B. Riley Wicker to investigate the financing of Tuscany Downs, which makes Richard nervous.

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.

Senator Ryder is intent on killing Richard and kidnapping Maggie. Convinced that Senator Ryder's brother John is responsible for the killing of The Thirteen, Richard discovers the secret method by which Ryder and John contact each other. As Richard waits in a park for John, he doesn't know that the senator has already killed his brother and is at Richard's house.

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.