 Spinoff from the popular "Mary Tyler Moore" series has Mary Richards  landlady, Phyllis Lindstrom, moving back to her hometown of San Francisco with her teenage daughter Bess following the sudden death of Phyllis  (heard of, but never seen) husband, Lars, to make a new life for herself and her daughter by moving in with Lars  scatterbrained mother, Audrey; and Audrey s second husband, Judge Dexter; and getting a new job as an assistant to Julie Erskine, the CEO of a photography studio.