James Culver (Robert Wagner), a widower, raises his two daughters, Elizabeth (Samantha Smith) and Margaret Ann (Maia Brewton) with his father, Henry (Lew Ayres), and investigates insurance cases with the British Edward Wingate (John Standing).

Smith, a schoolgirl in Manchester, Maine, had written then-Soviet premier Yuri Andropov a letter asking him whether he was truly desirous of a nuclear war with the United States, as she had heard suggested by some.

He wrote her a reply stating that he was not, and then invited her to visit the Soviet Union; the event, which was followed by media in both countries and elsewhere around the world, gained her fame.

[2] Three episodes and the pilot had been shot when Smith was killed on August 25, 1985, in the crash of a small plane belonging to Bar Harbor Airlines.

Bloodworth-Thomason was impressed by the pair's chemistry, and combining them with Delta Burke and Dixie Carter from a previous show, Filthy Rich, was the impetus for her later, much more successful Designing Women.