On her wedding day, Meg Cummings finds out that her fiancée Tim Truman had an affair with her best friend. She takes the car and runs away from her wedding, leaving Ludlow, Kansas. Her new destination is Sunset Beach, a town on the coast. Now she wants to find a man with who she has been e-mailing. Her first stop is at Elaine's Waffle Shop. There Elaine tells her the legend of Sunset Beach. If you meet someone on a beach exactly at time when the sun goes down and the moon shines bright. Meg goes to the beach, and at the same time there was Ben. A young homeless girl Tiffany spent the nights on the beach. A young man named Mark showed Tiffany an abandoned house, where she can stay hidden from hooligans and police. Meg tries to catch Tiffany, who decided to steal Meg's bag. She haunts her to the pier and falls down from the pier into the ocean.

After falling down into the ocean, Meg has been rescued by a young lifeguard Casey. He drives her to the hospital where he meets a young and pretty female doctor Rae Chang. They have a quarrel, but there was nothing but sympathy between them. After stealing Meg's backpack, Tiffany looks into it. There she finds all e-mails that Meg received from SB and sent to him. Meg encounters Ben at his internet cafe, where she tries to find SB. She receives a message from SB, he asks her not to come to Sunset Beach. Ricardo gets promoted into a detective. Paula is not too much happy about Ricardo's promotion. Ricardo and Paula have a hard talk about her pregnancy. But there were no reasons to worry about. Ben keeps on having flashbacks about his dead wife Maria. Annie needs to find the money to buy a boat. Meg calls her mother. She says that she is still looking for SB. Meg notices something about Casey that makes her think he's SB. Annie's father Del suddenly appears at her apartment.

Tim leaves Kansas and arrives to Sunset Beach where he finds Meg. He tries to catch up with her telling her that his revelationship with Connie is over. Michael saves Vanessa Hart, a young newspaper reporter from a car who almost runed over her. Annie comes back to her apartment where she finds Eddie in her jacuzzi. Ben looks through the window and sees them making love.

Gregory and Olivia realize that Annie has a gun, and they inform Del about it. Del asks his mistress, Olivia, to runaway with him, but she doesn't know what to tell him. He threatens to reveal their affair to Gregory. Casey and Rae accidentally buy a house together. Bette helps Annie get some money from her bank account. Meg and Tiffany share a talk in the boutique. Michael saves Vanessa Hart, a young newspaper reporter from a car that almost ran over her. Vanessa thinks it's not just coincidence. Meg comes to party. She wants to spend time with Casey. Casey and Rae try to discuss what to do with their house. Ben meets Meg on the party and offers her a job. She accepts it. Tiffany comes to party to seduce Ben, but Annie ruins her plan by a little drunken brawl. Tim leaves Kansas and arrives to Sunset Beach.

Olivia promises to run away with Del. Ricardo suggests Paula should move in with him. Vanessa wants Ricardo to investigate the apartment break-in, but there isn't enough case to begin with. Meg, Michael and Mark want to rent a room at Casey and Rae's house. Casey and Rae kiss. Meg meets Ben on the beach. Ben is still having flashbacks about his dead wife. Tim tries to convince Meg that his relationship with Connie is over, but Meg refuses to listen to his excuses. Annie and Del fight, and Annie comments on wanting to kill him. Tiffany tries to seduce Ben and when he refuses, she suffers a small accident. A strange woman arrives at Del's hotel room, opens the door and shoots him. Sean hears the gunshot and opens the door, seeing a woman in a black robe leaving Del's room.

Annie arrives at the hospital very upset. Del dies. Bette finds Del's wallet in Annie's purse. Paula moves into Ricardo's apartment. After he comes home, he tells her that he was just joking. Bette calls Annie's mother Madeleine, but she does not answers. She leaves a message on her answer machine telling her that Del died, so Annie in now very lonely. Mark warns Tiffany to stay away from Ben, but she won't listen. After Ben finds Tiffany, she baches him in the head with a vase.

Eddie tells Ricardo that he thinks Annie murdered Del. On the tape, Annie tells Del that she wants to kill him. Eddie thinks it's enough proof, but Ricardo doesn't agree. Gregory finds Olivia drunk and asks her if she had an affair with Del. Paula wants to break up with Ricardo. Annie goes to Ben's and begs him for an alibi. Reluctantly, he agrees. Ben wants Gregory to help Annie, but Ricardo shows up and takes Annie to the police station for questioning. Ricardo tells Gregory that they found Olivia's hair on Del's pillow. Olivia pulls a gun out of her drawer.

After a strange man attacks Vanessa again, she moves in with Michel in Surf Central. Gregory questions Olivia about the hair found on Del's bed. She confesses being with him on the night that he was murdered. Casey leaves a white rose at the table for Rae. Meg accidentally finds it and thinks that the rose is for her, because SB knows that she loves white roses. Ricardo questions Bette about Annie's alibi. Bette covers for her telling him that she and Annie were watching a video the entire night. Later, she takes Del's wallet and burns it in the fireplace. Tiffany buys a miniature boat and leaves it in Ben's house. Olivia goes to the pier and takes up a gun. Eddie sees her and takes some pictures of her. Now he has a new suspect.

Meg decides to bake some strawberry muffins for Casey because she knows that SB likes them. At the hospital, Rae discovers that Casey had an allergic reaction to strawberries. Meg is confused about it, and then later questions Casey about it. Del leaves all his inheritance to Olivia. Annie accuses Olivia for murdering her father. Annie takes the urn with her fathers ashes and flushes it down the toilet. Ricardo tells Sean that he knows that he is lying about the identity of the woman that he saw leaving Del's hotel room on the night that he was killed.

Ricardo finds Del's driving license in Annie's fireplace. Annie escapes from the bathroom window. Meg is disappointed to realize that Casey isn't SB. She thinks about leaving Sunset Beach and going back to Kansas, but Casey begs her to stay. Gregory finds out that Sean is expelled from school. Ben is on the pier when Annie shows up. She tells him that she needs some help. She takes a gun and threatens to shoot him unless he listens to her.

Ricardo and Paula beg Annie to give them the gun, but Annie doesn't follow their orders. She tells them that she wants a helicopter to fly away with Ben. LAPD team shows up and tries to take the gun away from Annie. She accidentally shoots Ben, but doesn't hurt him. Meg waits for SB at the pier. Over there, she sees a man with dark hair, so she asks him if he is SB. Annie goes to jail. Rae's parents show up in Surf Central. Rae lies to her parents by telling them that Casey is her husband. Meg leaves the pier after realizing that SB won't show up. Eddie has been removed from the case after Ricardo finds out that he sent the LAPD team.

Rae explains to Casey why she told her parents that he is her husband. Her parents always thought that the perfect man for her is Wei-Lee, but Rae doesn't want to marry him. Tiffany writes an e-mail to Meg pretending that she is SB and telling her that they will never meet. Later, Ben sends an e-mail to Dorothy (Meg), but his e-mail returns back. Rae's father begins questioning Casey. A man comes to Elaine's Waffle Shop asking for Vanessa.

Sean talks with Olivia and tells her that he saw her with the black coat the night Del was killed. She tells him to not tell anyone about it. Eddie calls Olivia and tells her that he has her pictures when she was at pier dropping a gun into the water. He tells her that he wants money, or he will give the pictures to Ricardo. Paula and Ricardo take Sean to the station to ID the suspect from a line-up. Two thugs threaten to kill Vanessa, but Michael rescues her in time. At the station, Paula sees Ricardo hugging his old girlfriend Amy. She gets jealous and tells Ricardo that she is going out to dinner with Eddie.

Olivia tells Sean to incriminate Annie. Sean tells Ricardo that Annie murdered Del. Later, Annie takes a polygraph test so she would prove her innocence. But as the test passes, it all looks like Annie will fail on it. Ricardo gives Paula a ring, but she gets angry after she finds out that his ex-girlfriend picked it. A strange man bursts into Michael's room. Jaleen runs to him and calls him Uncle Clyde. He tries to kidnap her by setting a gun on Casey's head. Michael breaks a bottle over Clyde's head. They take Clyde to Michael's garage and tie him up with a tape.

Casey and Michel lock Clyde in the bathroom. Rae gives Clyde a drug which one gives Clyde a temporary amnesia. Bette comes to the police station and gives Annie a disguise, so Annie looks like Bette. Annie tries to get out with Bette's help, but she's taken back to jail after they discover her. Eddie visits Annie in her cell and she tries to seduce him. Meg talks about SB with Ben, but she does not know that he is already sleeping.

Eddie wakes up in Annie's cell hand-cuffed to the cot. Annie sets him free and tells him that they could be a mutual benefit to each other in the future days. Later, Eddie keeps on pressuring Olivia with new demands. Al Kennedy, one of Bette's ex-husbands, shows up at Sunset Beach and tells to his clients that the case is pretty weak. Olivia goes on questioning with Ricardo. She tells him that he and Gregory were dining with Congressman Belarus on the night Del was murdered. Cole shows Caitlin the secret cavern on the beach. Olivia finds out that Gregory hired Eddie to follow her everywhere. Meg uncovers strong evidence that could help Annie get out of prison.

Meg and Ben do their best to help Annie get out of prison by going to a travel agency. Ben discovers that Del and Olivia were supposed to leave Sunset Beach on the day when Del was murdered. Eddie does his best to ensure that Annie doesn't leave alive. On the way to country jail, a driver doesn't listen to Ricardo's demands through the radio, and tries to rape Annie. Later, after being rescued, Annie is returned back to the old cell. Casey tells to Rae's father that he is studying law over the Internet. Ben thinks that Gregory killed Del.

Gregory gives Sean a sports car. Although Gregory is convinced that this could bring their bond back, Sean doesn't want to have anything to do with his father. Ben gives Sean a job at Java Web. Bette and Al Kennedy have too much fun in the hot tub, which results with Al's accidental death. Vanessa starts investigating Michael's past. Michael meets an old friend, but doesn't know that he's connected to Clyde. Ricardo and Ben almost get into a fight, but in order to stay on the Douglas case, Ricardo decides not to pursue the fight. However, Chief Harris pulls him off the case.

Gregory is becoming jealous over Caitlin's relationship with Cole St. John. Elaine meets Cole and is shocked to realize the similarity between Cole and Armando Deschanel. Ben hits Eddie just so that he would end in the same prison cell with Annie. Annie pursues a plan of her own--they find her unconscious when she tries to hang herself.

Annie is still alive, much to Eddie's surprise. He informs Paula and Ricardo that Annie tried to kill herself, and interrupts them in the middle of a serious relationship-talk. When Rae starts talking about some hospital work she needs to do on Annie, Annie awakes and it turns out she was just faking it. Sean thinks his mother is Del Douglas's killer and he confronts her, but Gregory sends him away and has a little talk with his wife. They end up making love, which leaves Olivia convinced that Gregory no longer suspects her as Del's murderer. Annie tries to escape again. She overhears Ben and Meg talking about their relationship. Eddie attacks Annie with a knife.

Ben and Meg help Annie escape while Eddie rushes out to investigate the alarm that Ben set to make a diversion. Eddie goes to Ricardo and tells him they've been tricked and now Annie has escaped. Casey and Rae are too shy to tell anything to each other after Michael & Vanessa try to put them together. Mark wants to get closer to Tiffany but he is interrupted by Sean. After few drinks, Mark and Sean start fighting and Mark pushes Sean, who hits his head on Ben's fireplace. Annie is crawling through the ventilations, while Ricardo arrests Meg & Ben for helping Annie escape. Annie goes out through the window and is afraid because she needs to watch out to not fall down from the top of the hospital. Her nightgown gets caught on a pipe and while trying to free herself, Annie loses control and falls off screaming.

Meg and Ben are arrested for helping Annie escape, but Ricardo has to let them go because he has no proof. When Sean is taken to the hospital for his head injury, Gregory accuses him of trying to embarrass him. Michael calls a buddy, JoJo, to help him find a safe place for Jaleen and LaShawnda to hide, not knowing that JoJo is Jamahl Muhammad, the very man that LaShawnda wants to hide from. Annie is nearly caught by Eddie, but she gasses him and escapes. Ben mentions Maria to Meg for the first time when Annie leaves a coded message that she'll meet him in the weight room at the gym where she and Maria used to work out. Ben and Meg send Casey as a decoy to lure the police away. After the police are gone, Ben leaves for the gym to meet Annie. Annie gets out of the hospital by hiding in Al's coffin.

Annie tries to escape. Ricardo questions Olivia about the night of Del's murder and she finds herself confused by all the questions. Meg tells Ben she wants to help Annie. Gregory gives Tim a job -- as Olivia's chauffeur, after Olivia loses her driving license by being caught drinking. Jaleen recognizes Michael's friend Jo-Jo as her daddy. Annie, who is still in the coffin, believes to be transferred to New Orleans, but she doesn't know that the coffin has instead been shipped to the crematorium.

Ben and Meg help Annie by distracting Ricardo to a wrong clue. Bette is on the memorial service for Al, and she has no idea that Annie is trapped inside Al's coffin. At home, Meg comforts Bette. Bette tells her that Al's widow wouldn't pay for the funeral, so the coffin is going to the crematorium. Gregory catches Caitlin and Cole at Elaine's Waffle Shop, and Caitlin tells him that she wants him to leave them alone. Bette tells Olivia that they have a big problem coming. Ben returns to the center and finds Al's body sitting in the memorial service, so he finally realizes that Annie must be in the coffin. Ben realizes that the coffin isn't on the way to New Orleans, but to the crematorium. Meanwhile, Annie believes that her coffin is being sent to New Orleans. Little does she know that the coffin is being inserted into the crematorium place.

Olivia and Bette are shocked to find out that their secret from years behind might be revealed, but they both vow not to say anything to Elaine. Meg tells Ben that Al's coffin is in the crematorium. After seeing Ricardo, Meg decides to tell him the truth. Gregory lies to Caitlin about trying to cope with the fact that she has a boyfriend. He continues trying to manipulate her life. Elaine shares her beliefs with Olivia and Bette - she is convinced that Armando Deschanel's son is in the town. Ben, Ricardo, Paula and Meg are shocked to find out that Annie's coffin is no longer in one piece. Ben hears Annie's screams in his head.