Judge Hathaway had three adult children: Julian (James Mitchell), a professor of literature at the local university, Kate (Diana van der Vlis), a sympathetic but sexually repressed law student, and Allison (Louise Shaffer), the liberated feminist black sheep of the family.
In the first episode, Allison returned to Northcross for her father's funeral, having left town years before with her sister's fiancée Roy Archer (Stephen Joyce).
Vicky, the daughter of Ed Lucas (Joseph Mascolo) the owner of a restaurant in Northcross, called the Starlight, managed to seduce Michael, and when she conveniently became pregnant, he married her.
Vicky was confined to a state mental hospital, while Mary, now recuperated from the accident, gave birth to Julian's son and Michael's half-brother, Daniel.
Allison's demanding nature sent him into the arms of Kate Hathaway's best friend the confused but sweet-natured Christine Cameron (Terry O'Connor and Delphi Harrington).
After giving birth to Hugh's illegitimate daughter Katina, Christine became the target of harassing phone calls and insidious notes, and everyone believed that Allison was her rival's stalker.
It transpired that the real culprit was Christine's kindly, old neighbor Will Watts (Robert Symonds), a deranged psychopath who had murdered his adulterous wife decades before.
Peter also died in a tragic accident, and Kate, unable to cope with all the tragedy around her, began to display increasingly erratic behavior, hearing voices and acting lewdly.
In the show's final year, Julian fell into a steamy affair with conniving student Liz Harris Rainey (Tracy Brooks Swope).
She also instigated vicious rumors on the university campus that Julian and Mary were engaged in a ménage à trois with Loretta Jardin (Alice Drummond), Peter's other aunt, a recovering alcoholic high school teacher.
Meanwhile, Liz's father John Rainey (Peter MacLean) became involved with Christine Cameron, who was caught in a court battle with Hugh and Allison for custody of Katina.
Although Where the Heart Is achieved fairly healthy ratings, averaging a 6.7 and 26 share for its three-and-a-half-year run, it was typically the lowest-rated soap on CBS’ daytime schedule.
"[4] Where the Heart Is and the newsbreak that followed it (which later moved to 10:55 a.m.) were replaced on CBS' daytime schedule by The Young and the Restless, which would become the most popular TV soap opera in America for three decades running, and is still on the air as of 2024.