Eleanor, the low-key but powerful matriarch of the Ashford family, learns that the family of Vivian—the girlfriend her heir son Adrian is seriously dating—runs a farm on their Blackwood Estate. She decides to meet Vivian formally during an estate inspection. But a landslide forces Eleanor to drive a repair pickup alone, so Vivian's family mistakes her for a lowly servant. Vivian, eager to marry into wealth, already sees herself as the future mistress. After illegally driving the wrong way and scraping Eleanor's truck, she slaps Eleanor, smashes the pickup, and joins her parents in humiliating her. Even when Eleanor reveals her identity, they refuse to believe her—dunking her, hanging her over a crocodile pit for fun, while eagerly awaiting the "rich mother-in-law." After escaping, Eleanor decides to let Adrian see Vivian's true face. A jewelry-store encounter changes nothing. Eleanor also discovers Vivian has secretly dated her real boyfriend David since college; she pursued Adrian onl
