Bed of Roses

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.

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.

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.