1970: Amy Tyler spent the last 18 years of her life keeping a secret that could destroy her. She was now the wife of Lincoln Tyler, a member of Pine Valley’s founding family. Though Amy loved Lincoln, she knew he could never understand her secret. She was already having a hard enough time trying to ward off the interventions of her mother in law, Phoebe Tyler. Phoebe was worried that Amy’s liberal politics and anti-war philosophy compromised Lincoln’s chances at running for office.
Amy was very close to her nephew Phil Brent, a closeness that his father, Ted Brent, abhorred. One day, Amy got a call that Phil was caught in a gas leak. At the hospital she demanded to see Phil: her son. 18 years ago, she fathered a child with Nick Davis, and gave the child to her sister, Ruth Brent, to raise. Nick had left her with nothing more than a note. When Phil learned the truth, he pushed Amy away. Lincoln and Amy’s marriage crumbled. With nothing left for her in Pine Valley, she left for Switzerland to a joining a Peace movement there.