Tripp and Letitia Darling throw Nick a lavish birthday party on a yacht, despite the fact that the day before, Nick and his wife, Lisa, had been planning to celebrate privately. That was before Tripp called Nick to broker a reconciliation between himself and his eldest son, senatorial candidate Patrick, who's going through a rough patch in his own marriage as he searches for his missing transgendered mistress. Meanwhile youngest son Jeremy reveals his feelings for Lisa to the lovely and mysterious Nola Lyons; the relationship between Karen and Tripp's nemesis, Simon Elder, enters a new level of intimacy; the de-frocked Brian is reunited with his illegitimate son; the whole Darling family is dealt a blow by the death of one of their own, and someone is arrested for murder.