The Emmy-winning soap opera, which aired in the United States from July 30, 1984 until January 15, 1993, centered around four families: The wealthy Capwells, who seemed to own everything in Santa Barbara, their rivals the upper-class Lockridges, who had lost much of their local prestige to the Capwells, the blue-collar Perkins family, and the Hispanic Andrades. 

The series opened with the murder of Channing Capwell, Jr., the prodigal son who happened to be leading a double life. He was secretly simultaneously having an affair with the housekeeper's daughter and a boy from school. Everyone was a suspect from his half brother Mason, his gay lover Lindsay, the mother of his love child, Santana Andrade, a few family rivals Lionel and Warren Lockridge, his sister's fiance Peter and her ex-boyfriend Joe were among the accused. 

It took about a year to learn that the shooter was none other than his own mother Sophia who happened to be in male-drag at the time posing as Dominic. She blocked the whole thing out. She went to the mansion to scare an ex-lover whom she believed had tried to kill her 15 years earlier which led to her initial amnesia. A possessive psychiatrist who didn't want her to return to Santa Barbara was doing everything possible to make sure she never returned to Santa Barbara or her family, including hypnotizing her to forget her past and the murder.