A half-hour daytime drama taped in Toronto with both U.S. and Canadian personnel, High Hopes revolved around the character of Dr. Neal Chapman, a family counselor in the college town of Port Hamilton. The locus of the story was his large old house, with other action around Delaney College. Neal was divorced from Helen, and lived with their eighteen year old daughter, Jessica, and his mother. Neal was involved with two women: Trudy Bowen, the host of a local television talk show, and Louise Bates, the real estate agent who sold Neal the house. Louise was also a tenant in Neal's house, along with Dr. Jean Bataille and Neal's close friend, lawyer Walter Telford. When Jessica learned that she was not actually Neal's and Helen's child, but the daughter of Helen's sister, Paula Myles, she too took a sexual interest in the man who was formerly her father. An early report of the program noted, "In succeeding episodes, it is planned to introduce Jessica's real father, Trudy's parents, a lottery winner, a fire, two marriages, and a death." As if Chapman's own family problems were not enough, his role as a counselor provided the opportunity to introduce parallel plots that involved his clients.
—Blaine Allan