JANUARY
Judy was tricked into a fake marriage by Victor, who planned to flee with her and the money to South America. Enraged to learn about Victor's plan, Teresa paid a friend to impersonate her at a symphony performance. Meanwhile, Teresa disguised herself as a hotel maid and confronted Victor in the bridal suite. While Judy wrote a letter to Bill, telling him that she planned to leave with her new "husband", Teresa stabbed Victor in the back with a letter opener and slipped out of the hotel. Judy picked up the bloodied letter opener and screamed at the sight of Victor's body, an incident witnessed by a hotel porter. Young police lieutenant Ed Gibson was sent to investigate the murder, and although sympathetic, he was forced to arrest Judy for Victor's murder.

Sara and Mike, along with Mattie and Winston, were on tenterhooks when Laurie Ann was diagnosed with deadly paranucleosis, a rare, fatal condition. Willy vowed to track down the only doctor in the country capable of performing a paranucleotomy.

FEBRUARY
Judy was indicted for the murder of Victor Carlsen. Ed realized that he was falling in love with her and vowed to clear her name. Mike agreed to defend Judy in court.

When Laurie Ann wandered into the street, Sara ran after her and was struck by a car while pushing her daughter to safety. Despite the prayers from all her family and friends, Sara bid Mike a tearful and loving farewell and died five days later. Willy kept his promise to a grieving Mike and found a surgeon who could perform life-saving surgery on Laurie Ann.

MARCH
Laurie Ann's surgery for paranucleosis was successful. Meanwhile, Winston and Mattie moved into the Karr home to help Mike care for his daughter and begin the slow adjustment to Sara's sudden death.

Judy went on trial for Victor's murder and made bitter enemies with her cellmate Katie Dwyer, who vengefully offered to testify against Judy. Mike butted heads with aggressive district attorney Austin Johnson, who had his eye on a future governorship.

APRIL
Teresa uncovered the location of the hidden numbers racket money and planned to leave with it after witnessing Judy's conviction for Victor's murder. As the trial neared its conclusion, Mike and Ed found evidence that indicated Teresa's guilt. Mike served Teresa with a subpoena and planned to tear her apart on the witness stand. In open court, Mike suggested that Teresa, not Judy, stabbed Victor in the back, and then he tossed a fountain pen at her, which she caught with her left hand. Mike pointed out that forensics identified Victor's killer as being left-handed, but Judy is right-handed. Teresa fled the courtroom, but was detained by police on the orders of Judge Edwards. Trapped, Teresa privately blackmailed Austin Johnson, threatenening to reveal their past affair if he doesn't help her escape.

MAY
When Teresa's threats of destroying his future governorship failed to move him, Teresa pulled a gun from her purse and forced Johnson to escort her outside the courthouse and into his car. Teresa drove away with Johnson at her side, but he jumped from the car and fled at an intersection. Teresa managed to escape the police and drove to a deserted mine shaft on the Carlsen farm outside Monticello where the Carlsen brothers stashed their racketeering money. Ed and Mike trailed Teresa into the mine. All three were trapped when a shot fired by Teresa triggered a deadly cave-in. Trapped inside the mine, their deaths imminent, Mike and Ed tricked Teresa into making a full confession, just before they were all rescued.

JUNE -AUGUST
With Teresa Vetter safely behind bars, Judy and Ed married, and shortly thereafter, Judy learned that she was pregnant with his child. Ed's younger sister Margie obtained a job as a floral courier, unaware that the packages she delivered were filled with heroin. When she discovered the drug operation, Margie was attacked by heroin smuggler Speed Taft, who left her for dead. Margie survived but lost her vision in the attack. Ed vowed to capture the men responsible.

Winston's daughter Louise and her husband Phil Capice returned to Monticello. Louise, befriending a pregnant Judy, decided that she too wanted to be a mother. Unable to have children of their own, Louise and Phil considered adopting a baby instead. Exhausting all legal attempts at adoption, they turned to the black market for a child.

In August, a crazed Speed Taft held the Morrissey family hostage in a home invasion, as the police closed in. Ed attempted to rescue the family but found himself in even more danger. During a scuffle over a gun, Taft shot Ed and fled in his car, which crashed after Taft was shot by the police. After learning from a reporter that Ed's car crashed and the driver was killed, Judy, believing Ed to be dead, miscarried the baby.

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER
Phil and Louise enlisted the aid of shady Casey Reno to help them get their black market baby. Reno, who owed money to powerful criminal Scofield Killbourn, arranged for the adoption of a baby girl using disbarred attorney Leland Breckenridge and fellow hood Sam Haven. Reno plotted to get Killborn off his back by helping him seek revenge on enemy Winston Grimsley through blackmail once the adoption was finalized.

Margie Gibson learned from Dr. Southard that she may be able to regain her sight, while cries of the baby she lost tormented a despondent Judy.

Mike was called away to Capitol City on extended business with the Crime Commission, as original castmember John Larkin quietly departed the series.

Killborn ordered Reno and henchman Sam Haven to put the screws to the Grimsleys after Phil and Louise were given a baby they named Sara-Louise. Reno warned Phil that Sara-Louise would be returned to her mother if Phil didn't agree to use his warehouse for the storage and transportation of heroin shipments.

Phil secretly tape recorded conversations with Reno and gathered evidence, which he planned to turn over to Ed, who investigated heroin trafficking in Monticello for the state crime commission. When evidence suggested that Phil was involved in narcotics trafficking, Ed worried that he and Louise would lose custody of Sara-Louise. Crooked cop Gerry Harrison swiped one of Phil's tapes and gave it to Kilborn.

Kilborn contacted sinister plastic surgeon Dr. Ursula Bauer and concocted a gruesome scheme to keep Phil quiet while digging the Grimsley family deeper into trouble. Phil decided to doublecross Reno, who planned to move the heroin shipments to a paint factory owned by Nate Axelrod. Phil and Louise wondered if Ed would believe that Phil had been forced to be a part of the dope ring.