The married couple George and Felicity return home to Santa Rita - his first vacation in 20 years. They are apalled that their son, Kevin, plans to marry Melinda in 14 days. Melinda is a Mexican-American waitress at the local Country Club, and her father hates to see her marry an 'anglo'. At the same time Kevin asks Dianne, a young defense attorney, to run against Judge Stinson at the upcoming election. Dianne's old 'flame', Mike Chulack, returns from 10 years in prison to the very deep dismay of her husband, Bruce. A criminal gets away from robbing a drugstore.
Mike Chulack and Dianne's younger sister, Kate, visit 'Herb's Auto Repair' where he gets a job, and they date. Soon she hires him as a driver for her 'Party Magic' business. Dianne discovers that Bruce buys and uses condoms and a divorce seems inevitable. Changes happen quickly now, and alone with Mike in Party Magic's business car they kiss passionately. The night before his wedding Kevin is totally drunk, and is apparently having sex with a stripper. Next morning Melinda finds some photoes showing the escapade and that makes her say *I do .. have reservatiions abhout this marriage'. To her father's endless joy the marriage is cancelled and her last dance is saved for him.
Dianne leaves the frying-pan and walks into the fire as Bruce is found dead by gunshot at Kate's office. Bruce's secretary Joanna is busy deleting files and Dianne finds both her own and Bruce's money vanished without trace. Mike is taken by the police for the murder because he keeps his silent about the affair with Dianne and the alibi. Felicity demands that Kwevin makes Melinda return her engagement ring, and George confronts the stripper and gets some answers he did not expect.
The 8 year old Brian teaches his mother Dianne, Kate and Melinda how to recover superficially deleted files, and Joanna is discovered as Bruce's lover. When her registrated gun is found she spitefully confesses the murder. On her father Sal's initiative Melinda starts dating Toly, and Kevin is despaired. Kevin sees faxes with death threats to Dianne and makes the police give her protection.
Tests from the autopsy proves Bruce regularly abused cocaine, and Dianne looses hope of ever finding any of the vanished money. However George and Felicity admit that they have handled Bruce's insurance money unsufficiently, and they fire their accountant. The technical investigations proves that he was not killed by his secretary, Joanna, as her bullet hit nothing but the wall. After some comic setbacks the police succeeds in tracing the person who faxes death threats to Dianne.
Detective Jerry Kuntz who is the leader of the police investigation of the Bruce Christenson murder has elbowed his way into this position, and he seems very eager to let Tommy Simmons out of the scope. Some very special sunglasses were found beside the dead body, Kuntz delivers them back to the owner, Tommy, but a photo from the night of the murder shows Tommy wearing them on his forehead - in Mike Chulack'z presence. Again the investigation is focused upon Mike.
Salvatore Lopez reports Tommy Simmons dead and that leads to the solution of the Bruce Christenson murder case. Melinda is forgiving Kevin his drinking the night before their originally planned wedding and takes him with her to get married. DO they succeed this time??
Dianne Benedict still has a debt to Bruce's creditors of $12.300, and Pete Dyson, an electric contractor, shows her a bill of $38.000 dollars. Her sister Kate seems to solve it by selling her Classic car to a mortuary, but the cautious Dianne lets Pete make a merger with Bruce's construction company. Dianne loses the election and Jim Stenson stays as judge, who inherits a lot of money from a presumably dead Emilie Howell. Prior to that Mrs. Howell has given Kate Benedict the assignment to keep a birthday party for her dog Pretty Boy. Melinda decides to take part in a beauty pageant called 'Miss Friendly Santa Rita', and again her father is horrified.
Miss Friendly Santa Rita 1981 Lara Peterson is guest judge at the present beauty pageant. 'Cook Insurance' sponsors the event the 7th year in a row, so George is a judge, too, while Jim Stinson is the third. To his amusement Lara flirts with George, and Stinson is busy making passes on Melinda. Mike proposes to Dianne, and a rivalry between Kevin and Richard seems certain to occur, but Kate is intensely focused on finding Emily who is alive, indeed.
Emily May Howell's brother, dr. Ruben L. May, is found dead by Kate who suspects Judge Stinson to have murdered him. Mike wants to have lunch with Dianne, but Pete is more lucky and Mike is very jealous.