Ten years before the main events, two lawyers — Allura Grant and Liberty Ronson — decide to break away from the structural sexism of the legal world and open a firm that serves women only. Tired of seeing colleagues and clients treated as supporting characters, they create a practice built on power, discretion, and strategy for women ready to break free from abusive relationships.

With the support of the experienced Dina Standish (Glenn Close), who funds the venture and becomes a kind of mentor, they leave their former firm, but are allowed to take only one employee with them. Their choice is Emerald Greene (Niecy Nash-Betts), the pragmatic and witty private investigator who knows how to uncover everything husbands try to hide.

But the exclusion leaves scars: Carrington Lane (Sarah Paulson), the firm’s most brilliant and devoted lawyer, feels betrayed for not being chosen. Furious, she decides to open her own practice, vowing to outshine — and destroy — her former colleagues.

Cut to 2025: the original trio — Allura, Liberty, and Emerald — are now billionaires and icons, running the most powerful female-led law firm in Los Angeles. The three celebrate their empire, their wealth, and their bond.

Allura, however, leads a double life. Married to retired football star Chase Grant, she clings to the image of perfection while her marriage slowly crumbles. On their fifth wedding anniversary, he forgets — or pretends to. The excuse is work, but soon the truth comes out: he’s having an affair with Milan, the firm’s young receptionist and Allura’s own protégé.

Meanwhile, the firm’s clients of the week define the show’s tone:

• Grace Calloway, a former actress divorcing an unfaithful producer. Allura and Emerald join forces to dig up proof and turn the case into a strategic — and very profitable — win.
• Sheila Baskin, a socialite who cheated on her husband but refuses to lose her fortune, is defended by Liberty, who proves why she’s the pragmatic backbone of the team.

The chemistry among the trio is sharp and witty: Allura is control and glamour, Liberty is logic and precision, and Emerald is pure intuition. Together, they’re a steel-clad sisterhood.

But the celebration doesn’t last long. Back in Los Angeles, Allura is blindsided when Chase asks for a divorce — and worse, leaves her for Milan, the very woman Allura considered her successor.

The episode closes on the perfect contrast between power and vulnerability: the lawyer who turned divorce into an art must now face her own.
Ryan Murphy ties it all together with his usual mix of melodrama, vengeance, and irony — in perfectly excessive doses.