The story focused on the Chapin, Gallagher and Robertson families and the people who were connected with them either socially or professionally.
The story began with the death of Chapin family matriarch Katherine, and while everyone mourned her, her long-absent daughter, Taylor, stepped off a helicopter holding a racehorse's victory wreath.
Much of the focus of the show was set at Haddon Hall, which was run by president Carter Robertson, who didn't much like the Chapin family.
He was married to Christina Robertson, whose sister, Sara, was married to sleazy Eddie Gallagher, a working-class man, who was shot and killed in self-defense by his daughter, Haddon Hall student Noel, for years of physical and sexual abuse.
The series later aired in France from 1989 to 1990 under the name La Ligne de Chance and Brazil from 1989 to 1990 under the name Rituais da Vida (Rituals of Life).