As Chase Gioberti, son of Jason and nephew of Angela, prepares to land his 747, his wife Maggie and son Cole fret over the where-abouts of Cole's sister, Victoria. Victoria returns soon after, with a convenient excuse for her late return, but Cole is wise to her excuses, telling her to break it off with her teacher, Harris. Cole later confronts Vicki and Harris together, punching Harris to the ground. The police arrive, arresting Cole.

Meanwhile, back at Falcon Crest, the Sherrif gives his condolensces to Angela, with no idea that Jason's death was not as it seems. Julia, Emma's sister, waits for her son, Lance, to take Emma upstairs to get some rest, before telling Angela she thinks Emma needs psychiatric help. Angela side-steps Julia's concern, telling her to make herself a drink and relax.

Julia offers to phone Chase in New York, but Angela declines, telling her she will phone him herself. "This is not a social call, I have to tell him his mother died".

Maggie receives the news of Jason's death, and tells Chase when he arrives shortly after. Chase is devastated, as Maggie tells him of the accident, despite not having seen his father in years.

Chase and Maggie family arrive in San Francisco and are driven from the airport by Chao-Li in Angela's limousine, taking them across the majestic Golden Gate Bridge onto the Tuscany Valley where the black Mercedes cuts through the lush valley, driving a path up to the imposing Falcon Crest mansion.

Maggie, awestruck, asks Chase, "this is where you grew up?" Chase tells her he grew up down the road, and that the mansion is where Angela lives. Lance and Julia greet Chase and Maggie, while Chao-Li, with the Giobertis' luggage asks Angela "Will your nephew stay with us long?" Angela, determined, replies "Only for the night Chao-Li…only for the night".

Maggie and Chase soon get a greater understanding of Angela's manner when she gives a eulogy at Jason's funeral in the Falcon Crest family grave-yard.

"We were both raised in the vineyards at Falcon Crest. Jason Gioberti was my brother, but he was more than that, he was my friend. He was my dearest friend. His passing will not change that. I think that I'll miss his laughter and his compassion, but I will not miss his love, because that became a part of me a long time ago. My father's dreams for Falcon Crest, became Jason's, and mine. And now that he's gone, the responsibility of turning those dreams into reality belongs to me. I know that your love and your prayers are with my brother, who is a man of the soil, and who we return to the earth."

Chase runs into Gus Nunouz, his Father's vineyardist and loyal friend. As Angela talks with Chase, Gus comforts Maggie, telling her cryptically, "Jason was like a father to me, his death was such a mystery. He's at peace now." Maggie is surprised and confused by Gus's words, but discounts his words.

At Jason's wake, Julia tells Maggie and Chase of Emma's state, explaining she was too upset to attend the funeral earlier in the day. Maggies raises Gus' statements about Jason's death with Lance and Julia, but Lance tells her that Gus exaggerates, and that Jason ran his truck over the cliff, drunk.

Angela gives Chase a pocket watch inscribed with the crest of the family that belonged to her grandfather, Joseph, who in turn gave it to her father, Jasper. Angela feels it fitting to be given to Chase, as he is now the oldest Gioberti male in the family. Angela introduces Chase and Maggie to her lawyer, Philip Erikson, who proceeds to inform the couple of Jason's will.

Upon Jason's death, Chase receives all of his father's estate, which it turns out, amounts to very little. The estate consists of fifty acres of Falcon Crest vines, along with Jason's modest stone house. Phillip tries to convince Chase to sell the land immediately to Angela. Chase, curious as to why he has only inherited a relatively minute amount of the Falcon Crest property, is told that upon Jason's death, a codicil to Jasper's will was activated, which stipulated that the original fifty acres would pass to the heirs of the first of his children, Angela or Jason, to die. The balance of the estate is left to his surviving child, Angela or Jason.

There is, however, one further condition of the will which Angela is justifiably concerned about. The only other provision of the will is that the surviving child would only retain Falcon Crest in the event of the natural death of the other. The only thing that could jeopardise Falcon Crest's unity would be the death of one of his children under suspicious circumstances, in which case the victim's heirs will inherit what is rightfully theirs. If anyone was to discover the real manner in which Jason died, Chase would inherit half of the entire Falcon Crest estate, and Angela would lose control of the winery in the process.

Later that night in bed, Chase confides in Maggie that he remembers Angela's bitterness towards his mother, Jacqueline Perrault, and wonders if Angela really did love Jason. Maggie comforts Chase, who is concerned that his past history with his father, which was one of little contact, is being repeated with his own children, Cole and Victoria.

Maggie and Chase are interrupted by a scream from up in Emmas's room. As Chase rushes to see what is going on, Angela tells him there is nothing to worry about, "it's just another one of Emma's nightmares. Goodnight." Upstairs, Angela attempts to comfort a distraught Emma, who is unconsoleable.

The following day, Chase takes Maggie to his father's house, a stone house made by his grandfather, Joseph. It is the house that Chase grew up in, but today is a mere shadow of it's former self, unkempt and in disarray. Chase is distraught how his father let the place go, and Maggie encourages him to hold onto the memories and for Chase to not look around. Chase declines and finds all the letters he has sent his father through the years. Chase tells Maggie that ever since Chase joined the Air Force Academy, his father did not speak to him, disappointed that his son was not continuing with the family business.

Meanwhile, Angela strolls through the grounds with Lance, assuring him that he needs to work hard for Falcon Crest, and one day it will all be his legacy. Lance promises to work hard, but Lance is bothered about Jason's accident, knowing that Jason wouldn't drink and drive. "He knew his limits," Lance says to Angela. "Yes, everyone should, and don't exceed yours," Angela snaps back at Lance, before changing the subject.

Chase and Maggie walk back to Falcon Crest, after learning Angela had fired Gus, Jason's vintner. Chase questions Angela's judgement, exclaiming "this was his home, you can't just throw him out." Angela counters: "you surprise me Chase. Gus wouldn't be in this position if you'd been here for your father."

Chase, spurred by his feelings for the old house and Angela's cut-throat treatment of his father's employees raises the possibility of not selling his acreage and keeping the house. Angela is taken aback, and so is Maggie. They are interrupted by a message from the New York City Police Department, that Cole has been arrested for the assault of Vicki's boyfriend, Harris. Chase and Maggie depart for New York and Chase puts off signing his legacy over to Angela, telling her he needs to think it over.

Lance is confused by his grandmother's attitude towards Chase and Maggie. "It's very simple, if you want to be a part of the land, you have to invest yourself in the land, and Chase has hardly lived here. He's been flying around in aeroplanes and now he's come to earth in the wrong place."

Although the charges against Cole have been dropped, Chase is concerned about his children. Vicki's secret romance with a man many years her senior, and Cole's hopes of finding a career in archaeology are worthless without him going to college. Chase feels moving to the Tuscany Valley may help bring the family together, his job as a pilot, tearing his family apart. "I want to be a father again, and a husband," Chase tells Maggie. Chase tells Maggie he felt a belonging back in California, and that it is an opportunity to rebuild the family. Maggie is concerned it has to do more with Chase's guilt over his lack of a relationship with his father, but Chase assures her that is not the reason.

He asks her to trust him, and allow them to move to Tuscany, despite her having a career as a writer in New York. Maggie decides that Chase may be right, and Chase, Maggie, Cole and Vicki set off for the Tuscany Valley to start life over.

The Gioberti children are a little concerned about their lodgings. Cole is surprised at how dilapidated the house is while Vicki laments how quiet and boring life will be out in the Valley. Chase, meanwhile, has rehired Gus, to work for him while he tries to re-establish his father's crops.

Lance rides back to Falcon Crest after scoping out the arrival of the Giobertis, asking Angela what they can do to gain control of the fifty acres. Crafty Angela respons "Why don't we make friends, invite them to dinner."