
Eve Lawson, president of Phoenix Group, hides identity, returns as country orphan. Family faces debt; father George Lawson sells home. At her birthday banquet, Nathan Thorne's family mocks them, demands repayment, tears up marriage contract. Finn Dalton, a Phoenix Group director, tries to force himself on Stella. Eve watches loved ones trampled. Unbeknownst to them, the "country bumpkin" holds Riverton's economic lifeline. Eve Lawson rises. The storm begins.