in the summer of 1968, victor lord (graves) is introduced as the owner of lord enterprises founder and publisher of the philadelphia main line newspaper, "the banner", serving the fictional town of llanview, pennsylvania. a widower, he is the domineering single father of daughters victoria or "viki" (originally gillian spencer) and meredith or "merrie" (originally trish van devere). the family inhabits victor's inherited family estate, llanfair. his wife, eugenia randolph lord, died while giving birth to meredith and was, ultimately, unable to produce his desired male heir to his estate (a picture of her hangs above the mantle of the lord library in early episodes). victor thereby goes about grooming his eldest child, viki, to assume the role of running the estate by hiring her as an editor for his newspaper.