Part 1

Return to Eden begins when the rich hairess and twice-divorced mother of two Stephanie Harper marries handsome young tennis champ Greg Marsden.

Greg soon begins an affair with Stephane's best friend, Jilly Stewart, and on their honeymoon in Eden (Stephanie's family estate in the Northen Territory), Greg seizes on an opportunity during a sunset boat ride with Stephanie and Jilly to push Stephanie into the crocodile-infested river. She doesn't last long.

Stephanie amazingly survives the attacks and is rescue by Dave Welles, who takes her back to his secret camp in the middle of the bush. He tends to her wounds, nurses her back to health, and three weeks later sends her on her way with a tin of opals to start a new life and a new name — Tara Welles, named after a lost love.

Three weeks after leaving Dave Welles' camp, Tara arrives at Orpheus Island, the home of a resort medical clinic run by Dr. Dan Marshall specializing in reconstructive surgery.

Tara doesn't want to just have her scars covered up, she wants to leave as a completely different person. After extensive plastic surgery and physical therapy, Tara departs.

Meanwhile, it's been eight months since Stephanie's death and Greg is wanting a resolution — a body so he can legally establish her death. Bill McMaster is just as happy for him to wait out the seven years required by law before he can get his hands on Stephanie's fortune and enjoys telling Greg of a clause in her will that leaves Greg nothing should he remarry.

Tara arrives in Sydney and looks in on the lives of her children and her husband. After completing her transformation with a full makeover, Tara strides into a talent agency and confidently proclaims she is looking for an agent, someone who can get her on the cover of Vogue in six months.