When Elizabeth Lange was younger, she lived with her mother, her older sister Leila and he mothers fiancé Matt. Her mother and Matt were alcoholics. After drinking they would fight and make up. Sometimes these fights would get physical. One day Leila got sick of them both and ran away with Elizabeth to New York where she became a famous actress.
Leila had nicknames for everyone. She called Elizabeth "Sparrow- and he husband Ted "Falcon-. But now she was dead. One night both Leila and Ted were drunk at a party and they left angry at each other. Elizabeth was on the phone with Leila trying to calm her down and heard Leila scream, "You're not a Falcon-. Then Ted supposedly went back to their apartment and threw her off the balcony. Elizabeth has to testify against him in court. Ted claims that he was drunk and he blacked out. Craig, the vice president of Ted's million-dollar company, lied and told Ted that he saw him that night and that he was all shook up and trying to get a cab.
After Elizabeth got home from Venice, she arrived at her New York apartment to find a letter from her friend Sammy, who works in the Cypress Point Spa. She had information about some poison-pen letters from Leila's fan mail. Then she received a phone call from Min von Schreiber, an old friend. She had given Leila her first modeling job. Min now owned the Cypress Point Spa in Pebble Beach, California. She insisted Elizabeth come and spend some time at the Spa to rest up. But Craig had suggested this so that he could secretly try and kill Elizabeth before she could testify in trial. .
When she got there she met Ted. She didn't want to be around him but secretly loved him. She knew it wasn't right to have those feelings because it was her sister's husband. He was with Craig, Barlett, (his lawyer) and Sidney (a rival of Leila's). Sid and Leila were always competing for parts in plays and men.