Hey everyone! Before regular episodes of Somerset resume, I thought I'd give the readers a chance to catch up on the month's storylines and allow newbies a chance to see what Somerset was all about before the show starts up again.

When Somerset premiered July 16, the following occurred:

Susannah Lucas, the daughter of former Somerset residents Sam and Lahoma Lucas, decided to move to her parents' former hometown to make a fresh start of her life. She had worked in Oklahoma City as a corporate attorney after moving back home from Kansas City several years before. Sam and Lahoma accompanied Susannah to Somerset, where Sam reconnected with Jack Martin, a longtime family friend who was once an executive in training at Delaney Brands under Sam. Jack recounted the story of how he had amassed enough capital through business deals to make a good fortune... but his one bad idea, selling Delaney to an international conglomerate that gutted the firm and moved its headquarters out of its longtime home, put him on bad terms with some people in Somerset.

Susannah went to work for Jack at Martin Enterprises, his conglomerate, but not before being involved in a near-miss car/motorcycle accident with Zachary Cleypool, the son of George Cleypool, a longtime enemy of Jack's and the head of Cleybank Corporation. Although Zachary tried to tell his father that the accident was not Susannah's fault -- and that his broken ankle was the result of him bumping into a hospital bed -- George would hear nothing of it and proceeded to dig up an old copy of a Kansas City newspaper. A mystery figure planted the paper at Susannah's condo, and when she found it the paper triggered some unpleasant memories. Susannah, who is suffering from undisclosed nightmares, has spent time with family friend Patrick Kurtz, the son of former Somerset doctors Stanley and Teri Kurtz. Patrick is now a doctor at Somerset Hospital.

One of Patrick's staff nurses, Alana Singleton, has been slow to hit the dating circuit once again following a breakup with Nick Barclay, her boyfriend of two years whose upwardly mobile political career caused clashes between Alana and himself. Nick and Alana have since mended fences and become good friends, but Alana is still unsure whether she wants to have a social life in addition to her career. Alana has been good-naturedly fighting off the advances of Mike Wagner, a metro reporter at The Somerset Register, but Alana is wondering if she indeed has feelings for Mike.

Alana is like a family member to the Petterinos, a hard-working Italian family who own Petterino's Restaurant, Somerset's premier Italian dining destination. Giovanni and Rose, who were college sweethearts, consider Alana a surrogate daughter, and Alana and fellow nurse Victoria Petterino are great friends. Victoria says she has no ill feelings toward eldest daughter Annabella, a successful fashion supermodel who makes trips between Somerset and Italy but keeps her modeling career private and away from the USA. Alana is trying to make Victoria realize she has strikingly attractive looks as well and that she's broken a lot of hearts over the years by not allowing love into her life. Victoria may be on the verge of a breakthrough there, however, as Zachary's rehab at the hospital has put him in close contact with Victoria. What Victoria isn't aware of is George has plans for the entire neighborhood that includes Petterino's -- sinister plans that even Zachary may have trouble swallowing.

Nick is keeping a secret for Jack about a top-secret project Jack is working on that involves an urban renewal of some of Somerset's longtime buildings; one building in particular, The Peoples Building, is catching Jack's eye, but the reasons why aren't known as of yet.

Nick is also lost in his own despair following what appears to be a lost encounter during a trip to Washington, D.C. While there attending a convention, he had contact with a young woman at a bar while watching a baseball game. Nick and the woman gave off immediate sparks of chemistry, but she was whisked away by her friends before he could find out basic info like a name and phone number. After his return to Somerset, Nick went so far as to dream that he ran into her at Bernard's, a downtown watering hole; he subsequently fell out of bed during the dream and suffered a slight concussion. Nick is realizing he has to pick up the pieces of his life and focus on his career, but Mike is offering to take a load off Nick's mind by making him part of Somerset's Bid for Bachelors and Bachelorettes, a hospital fundraiser.

Annabella sneaked back into Somerset one evening, triggering the family's security system before disabling it. She shared a warm reunion with her family and with Scott Garfield, Somerset's police chief. Annabella and Scott became fast friends many years ago when Annabella worked on a community-service project with the Somerset Police, and Annabella was there as a friend when Scott's wife, Julia, died in a car accident. Scott knows that he and Annabella are strictly platonic and only go out as friends; Annabella is happy for that since she herself has a new man in her life that she met over in Italy.

And there you are. Let's pick up from here, shall we?