Alex Stone
Age: 30 (at the time of the series premiere)

Born and raised on Hope Island, Alex Stone's mother and father owned and operated the Widow's Walk, an inn with 12 rooms and 6 bathrooms and a tavern and restaurant downstairs. One day when Alex was six, her father left on the morning ferry to pick up supplies. Later that day, her mother found a note from him simply stating, "I can't live this way any longer." They never heard from him again. Alex's mother's anger at being left with two small girls (Alex, 6; Laura, 3) permeated everything. Her only solace was in the church. She turned to Father Mac for advice and guidance. She was the kind of person who would go to church every day. Alex resented Father Mac's presumed father figure role in her life and pushed him away.

Finally, in her early teens, Alex began to rebel big time. Alex dreamed of getting as far away from Hope as possible. She achieved this goal when she went away to college at 17 to Miami, Florida. She met Steve Kramer, an aspiring photojournalist. They immediately fell in love. In short order, Alex found herself pregnant. Steve proposed. They went to City Hall and got a marriage license, but a few days later, Steve was offered his first assignment. They postponed the wedding, and Steve went off--and he's been going off ever since. The marriage license got stuffed away in a drawer and never again saw the light of day. Unable to deal with school, a job, and baby Dylan, Alex dropped out of college, fully intending to go back--eventually.

Steve and Alex have a very complicated relationship, fraught with anger and resentment and the kind of passion that, for short periods of time, manages to override the negatives. Since Steve was gone more than he was ever at home, Alex became mother and father and sole support of Dylan.

In 1995, Alex decided to go back to school and had just enrolled in night school when a call came from Father Mac that her mother was ill and needed her. With Steve gone on yet another long-term assignment and her mother deathly ill at home, Alex and Dylan went to Hope to care for Alex's mother, fully intending to return to Miami as soon as possible. Her sister, Laura, and she had made plans that Alex would stay for a while and then Laura would take over. But when it came time for Laura to come, she told Alex that she'd just gotten a new job and would lose it if she left (having moved to Chicago, gone to law school, and now working as a lawyer). So all of the emotional and financial responsibility fell on Alex's shoulders. Alex watched helplessly as her mother fought her terminal cancer as best she could. Her mother put complete faith in God. But Alex saw firsthand that God was simply not answering her mother's prayers.

One night during a big storm, Alex, who'd long ago stopped praying, found herself on her knees begging God to help her mother, but it was to no avail, and her mother died. This was the final nail in the coffin of Alex's belief system. Already angered by Father Mac's stoicism regarding the temporal vs. everlasting life with God, Alex butted heads with him more than ever after her mother's death, both over her mother and the fact that she never married Dylan's father.

Alex and her sister inherited the Widow's Walk. Since Laura wanted nothing to do with it, Alex could not bring herself to sell it and remained to run it--temporarily. She and Dylan moved into the Widow's Walk and have been there ever since.

At the Heart of Alex Stone

Alex is a good mother, but struggles with her relationship with her son who is "different" from the other kids. Bright and creative, he has never managed to get that sense of belonging. He's still waiting for his father to come back and take them away. Something which Alex knows will probably never happen.

Although the Widow's Walk is the island's social club, Alex doesn't have many close friends--just Molly Brewster, who is her best friend, and Callie Pender. She and Molly grew up on Hope together. Their friendship was sealed when Alex returned, and Molly was already working at the Widow's Walk for her mother. Molly was an enormous support for Alex during the time of her mother's illness. Alex knows that if it weren't for Molly, she probably wouldn't have been able to make a go of it here. Molly understands the people here and helps smooth things over when Alex speaks her mind (she's used to it being Brian Brewster's daughter).

What Alex likes about being here this time is that she's finally in control of her world. It's her place. Now, if she can just give her son that same sense of belonging, she could find the peace she's been searching for her whole life.

Although, on paper, Daniel is the last person on earth that Alex would want to be with, there is something electric between them. When he's in her presence she feels a strange mix of calm and excitement. They will first form a bond of friendship, of family (with Dylan in the mix), and love, but it will always be just out of reach because at the core of each of them is an opposition to each other's belief system. Daniel represents faith and devotion to God, and Alex no longer believes in God. At this point in time, neither of them is willing to see the other's point of view. Alex could never be a minister's wife, and Daniel's faith is at the heart of who he is, where he's headed, and his main source of joy in this world. And yet . . . there is that heat.