Like the novel and film of the same name, this nighttime soap opera is set in the small New England town of Peyton Place, whose quaint charm masks a complicated web of extramarital affairs, shady business deals, scandals, even murder. Over the show's four-season run, relationships shatter and shift among the main characters, which include bookstore owner Constance McKenzie; Allison, her illegitimate daughter; Elliott Carson, Allison's father; Rodney Harrington, Allison's handsome and wealthy boyfriend; Norman, Rodney's hapless younger brother; the much-married Betty Anderson, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks; Dr. Michael Rossi, a handsome physician; and Steven Cord, a young lawyer with a past.