Louisa Atherton lives a pampered life until the day her husband Jack dies of a heart-attack in the arms of another woman leaving her bankrupt and giving her no option but to move with her daughter Holly to her childhood home of Rainbow's End and her prickly mother Minna. Her main aim is to sell "Mary Kelly's" dilapidated house which was left to her by her father. But through a series of events she sets about doing up the house and moving into it along with the helpful and not so helpful advice of the townspeople of Rainbow's End.

Now stuck in Rainbow's End, Louisa is deeply depressed and humiliated as she's forced to sell her clothes at a garage sale and search for unskilled work.

Shannon Atherton is lost, but a footy legend doesn't admit to feelings of insecurity, nor will he face the fact that he's a has-been at 24. And he's in financial trouble. Shannon's life has run off the rails and so he does what he's always done, he looks to his mother Louisa to help him out.

Shonky builder Marty Mason is still the bane of Louisa and Holly's life. Holly demands that Louisa sack him, but Louisa's too intimidated.

An exhausted Louisa is juggling her cleaning and photography jobs with heavy labour, as she struggles to finish the shack by herself.

Louisa is about to start a new phase of her life. The shack is for sale, the auction sign's up; the minute it's sold Louisa is moving on.

Louisa and Holly return to Rainbow's End after their holiday in Europe with hopes of making changes after cashing in on her nugget find. But Louisa's spending and lack of attention look like putting a spanner in the works - not to mention the illegal prospecting going on at her home. Wendy announces that the Rainbow Echo newspaper is closing which riles Minna and leads her into another protest and convinces Louisa to buy it but Gavin outbids her. Meanwhile, Holly and Sean go on a successful picnic together but a date between Louisa and Nick doesn't go according to plan and is an outright disaster. Elsewhere, Gavin goes ahead with opening his 'Big Nugget' monument but Marty's usual shoddy workmanship puts paid to it.

Louisa finds out that Nick is quite the ladies man and cannot figure out why they don't have any chemistry at all. Holly gets involved in a protest that rapidly gets out of hand when Minna finds out local factory Dairy Fleet is polluting the local waterways and The Department of Sustainability and the Environment are refusing to believe that there is a problem. Louisa begs Gavin for a job as editor at the Rainbow Echo but he will only give her a job as advertising sales and up the advertising rate making it impossible to sell any advertising space. Gavin's new business partner Tim Price comes on board as the Rainbow Echo's new managing director and offers Louisa the job as trainee acting editor and starts changing the office around much to Gavin and Vivien's astonishment.

Louisa's first foray as acting editor of the Rainbow Echo is fraught with problems with Tim continuously bumping her editorial and Gavin inserting ads over her feature piece. Meanwhile, Sean avoids Holly and Marg's date with Gavin is not a success. Elsewhere, Rita helps Tsung Chi find out about his ancestor's disappearance.

Louisa, Gemma and Marg try to save Deb and Trev's marriage as Gemma discovers that perhaps her marriage is also suffering. Minna finds herself helpless to stop the Heritage Committee from falling apart as they are bullied by a farmer named Owen into selling their land but Holly steps in to save the day and turn the land into a community garden. Marg and Gavin's divorce comes through and Nick learns Holly how to drive as both he and Louisa avoid each other.

Nick's disappointment begins to show as Louisa and Tim's relationship continues to grow. Meanwhile, Pat and Gemma's relationship is under threat because of Pat's intimacy issues and it seems everyone in Rainbows End is aware of it.

Former editor of the Rainbow Echo Wendy Watt arrives back in town as spokesperson for Chimera Gold - an underhand mining company who specialize at buying up properties near mines around remote areas of Australia and exploiting them. So when Louisa, Minna and Holly find out that their target area is the new community garden all gloves are off and they set off to expose the company before they can wreck anymore damage. Meanwhile, Sandy's Alzheimer's begins to worsen, Nick finds out that Louisa's husband was going to leave her and Marg goes on a blind date with a man who calls himself 'Tom Cruise' and which turns out to be a disaster. Elsewhere, Marty takes over selling plots for the community garden but gets himself fired by Holly when she finds he is selling plots that don't exist. Minna and Sandy set up a company called Foxglove Fragrances but what they are cooking up is not exactly fragrant.

Holly tries to save the Community Garden from the clutches of Chimaera Gold and its mining exploits by pretending that she seen the extinct Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard thus preventing the company going ahead with the mining. Louisa prints the story but after wards Holly tells her it was a hoax and Louisa has to decide if she will reveal all in a retraction or keep quite. Elsewhere, Nick and Tim vie for Louisa's affection but their rivalry only drives her further away and Chin Trueng Chi returns from Melbourne and promptly tells everyone that he and Rita are getting engaged much to Rita's horror.

Wendy Watt and Chimaera Gold begin to suspect that Holly's discovery of the extinct Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard is a fabrication. But after Holly is intimidated by Wendy's henchmen Nick pays her a visit and tells her to call off her witch-hunt or he will take it further. Unfortunately, Chimaera Gold are allowed to begin mining and the Community Garden are given 21 days to vacate. Meanwhile, Tim and Gavin break the news to the Louisa and Vivien that they're selling the newspaper to Wentworth Regional Press. Gavin asks Louisa to accompany him to Melbourne but she refuses and finally Nick and Louisa get together. Later Gavin, Vivien and Louisa go into partnership and buy out the Rainbow Echo. Elsewhere, Sandy passes away in his sleep after moving into Minna's home. At his funeral service the elusive Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard makes a very rare appearance and puts an end to Chimaera Gold's mining.

As new co-owner of the Echo Louisa is striving for a first issue with impact but Holly and Minna are both having personal crises and require her support, thankfully Nick is there to anchor Louisa through the chaos of it all.

Louisa is derailed when she loses her engagment ring, finds Holly is considering a gap year and Minna is planning to drive again, then on top of it all she uncovers a damaging story about Sean's Father and is forced to grapple with her duty to report the truth or to protect Sean and his Dad.

When Louisa helps a local woman whose husband has left her she learns the extent of the childcare crisis and gets some firsthand experience at caring for a baby with Nick, meanwhile the new priest in town is bothering Minna and seems determined to support her in her grief.

Minna wants to take up ballroom dancing again, but her plans are derailed by a burglar in her home. Meanwhile, Nick unwittingly forces Louise to confront her fear of marriage by insisting they replace her old bed.

Rainbow's End is divided over the Domestic Cat Regulations. Louisa finds that her two closest friends, Deb and Marg, fall on opposite sides of the argument. Marg's suggestion of pre-marriage counselling leads Louisa to a secret that Nick has been keeping.

Minna is thrown off-kilter when her long-estranged sister, Frida, returns to Rainbow's End. Frida has come to launch the second edition of her novel, The Orchid, a work based on her experiences of growing up in Rainbow's End.

The Army come to Rainbow's End to perform a training exercise and Nick is recognised from his time spent in Queensland. Louisa is shocked to learn Nick was once a tent-boxer and has been hiding an incident from his past.

Louisa is thrown in the deep end when Vivien unexpectedly leaves her to manage the annual Heritage Society fundraising concert. It comes at a time when Louisa is endeavouring to get her relationship with Nick back on track.

Louisa and Nick are finally ready to take the plunge — a wedding date is set. However, as their marriage is in the making, another is coming to an end. Unbeknownst to Deb her husband, Trev, has been living a double life. He has another partner and a newborn baby and wants a divorce and his share of the farm.

Louisa wants to deliver a great community newspaper but Vivien's absence is making this a challenge so Rita is hired to fill in.

Louisa wants her wedding to be special and has been searching for something meaningful to wear. In a surprising gesture Minna offers to buy Louisa a dress and so along with Holly, the women embark on a shopping expedition to Melbourne. But the weekend goes horribly awry when they breakdown in the bush and become stranded without mobile coverage.

Louisa wants for nothing more than to be married to Nick but things are not going according to plan. With adverse weather conditions and fire warnings, Rainbows End is instructed to enact their fire plans. Nick is called to duty with the CFA to fight the fires and the wedding is postponed.