Back in 1990 Shawn Brady owned a fish market on the riverfront in Salem. His business was doing well until a new company, Jencon, decided to build a new oil refinery in Salem. Shawn and Caroline was very upset about this because the oil refinery could mean the downfall of all the little businesses on the riverfront, including their own. They held a meeting at the fish market and told Lloyd Garrison - the spokesperson of Jencon - exactly what they thought of this new development. Lloyd tried to explain that the oil refinery could create a lot of jobs in Salem, but the Brady's didn't want to hear any of it. They vowed to fight Jencon all the way. With the help of Calliope Jones they organized protest rallies. Carly Manning just came to town and decided to join the protesters. Although being camera-shy, she did everything she could to help the Brady's.
Bo Brady was living on his boat with his son. He just lost his wife (Hope) and was pretty much keeping to himself. Caroline wanted Bo to get involved with their fight against Jencon, but he just didn't care. Who could blame him after losing his wife so tragically? (Hope was caught in an explosion with Ernesto Toscano, Isabella's father).
One day, while reading The Velveteen Rabbit to Shawn Douglas, Bo was distracted by the protesters. He stormed out and demanded to know what's going on. Carly, not realizing who he was, told him about the refinery. Bo believed that nothing anyone did would stop Jencon and Carly didn't appreciate his attitude. They ended up arguing. Carly was quite surprised when she found out that he was a Brady.
Justin and Adrienne's contracting company, AJ Construction, was given the task to build the refinery. Nick and Shane both invested in Jencon. Kayla was very disappointed in Shane for this reason, but he only invested in order to get information for a case he was working on for the ISA.
Bo's attitude towards Jencon changed drastically when Shawn Douglas fell into a hole at the construction site while playing there with his cousin, Andrew. Carly Manning went after Shawn Douglas and nearly got stuck herself. When she did finally reach the little boy, she realized that he couldn't hear her. Bo was very thankful toward Carly for saving his child and slowly but surely he started opening up to her. Carly was very happy about this because she had a hidden agenda of her own. [Lawrence Alamain blackmailed Carly (Katerina von Leuschner) to bring Bo to him because he and Bo had unfinished business]. She needed to get close to Bo in order to get her brother back from Lawrence. [Lawrence kept Frankie (Francois von Leuschner) prisoner at his villa].
In the meantime, Bo declared war against Jencon for what they did to his child. He became the Riverfront Raider with the help of Emmy. They worked to sabotage Jencon's work, in order to prevent the building of the refinery. Bo later made her leave town when Roman got evidence linking her to the sabotage. For a while Roman even thought Carly might be the Riverfront Raider. Carly was against the Riverfront Raider and even went so far as to tell Bo about it. Even though Shawn and Caroline appreciated what the Raider tried to do, they also didn't think his was the best way to do it. Bo just kept on doing what he did and one night Carly followed him into the woods. This is when she realized Bo was the Riverfront Raider. She actually saw him spike some trees. She then confronted Bo, but he denied it at first.
Steve started investigating the Riverfront Raider case and it didn't take too long for him to figure out that Bo was behind it all. Instead of telling Roman, Steve went to Bo and confronted him. In the end Steve decided that Bo was only trying to help the people of Salem and Steve decided to help him in his cause.
[In the meanwhile we find out that Lawrence Alamain is the head of Jencon and he is after Bo.]
On the night of Steve and Kayla's farewell party (they were planning to leave town with their daughter), Steve placed a hidden camera in the old house where a meeting between Lloyd Garrison and Nick Corelli was to take place. Bo and Steve figured out that Jencon was planning on burning down Green Oaks, a forest area near Salem. They immediately tried to stop them and even got Shane and Roman involved.
Steve decided to go back to the party because he knew Kayla would be worried. Bo went after Jencon. Back at the party Steve overheard Nick talking on the telephone to someone. He heard Nick say that the cops were onto them and they better call the whole thing off. When Steve heard this, he told Kayla that he was going after Bo, because Bo might be walking into a trap. Steve told Kayla that he loved her and "little sweetness" (Stephanie) and walked off, but not before he turned around and smiled at them one last time.
Steve started looking for Bo and came upon a little fishing boat. When he got inside he found a little note saying: "Goodbye Bo Brady. Lawrence Alamain". Steve didn't realize that there was a bomb on the boat. When he finally did, it was too late.
Meanwhile Bo went back to the party, looking for Steve. Kayla was very worried by now. She probably sensed something was wrong with her husband.
Dr. Whitney Baker, Jack's psychiatrist, found Steve immediately after the explosion and called an ambulance. Steve was taken to hospital, but he was in bad shape. Kayla brought everyone in to talk to him and tell him why he shouldn't leave them. Two days later he woke up, but Lawrence told Steve' s doctor to inject him with poison. Soon, Steve had a hard time breathing. He died minutes later. Kayla vowed to find the person responsible for this tragedy.
Bo then caused another explosion at the refinery construction site. The following day Nick's body was found at the site. [In the meantime Roman realized that his little brother Bo might be responsible for the sabotage against Jencon.]
Everyone suspected Nick Corelli for Steve's murder and when Nick was found dead, Roman had a handful of suspects, because nearly everyone had a motive for killing Nick. Roman thought Bo was responsible for Nick's death. This caused Bo to run away and Carly insisted on going with him. They left for New York in order to find Lawrence. They wanted to find a way to make everyone back in Salem, including Roman, see that Lawrence was responsible for Steve's murder. When they got to New York, they found that Lawrence had already left for his country.
Bo and Carly followed him to his villa. This was just what Carly wanted, because she wanted to find her brother, Frankie.
[In the meanwhile Lawrence married Jennifer, posing as Katerina von Leuschner, at his villa. He blackmailed Jennifer into marrying him when she realized that he held Frankie Brady prisoner.]
Bo was very angry with Carly when he found out that she betrayed him to find her brother, Frankie. He later forgave her when he realized that she didn't really have any other choice - Lawrence made her do it. She desperately wanted to find her brother and Bo knew all too well what his family meant to him, so he could understand why Carly did what she did.
Even though Bo forgave Carly, he still kept his distance. Everyone could see that they were falling in love, but Bo tried to ignore his feelings for Carly.
Eventually everyone returned to Salem, including Kayla, Shane, Bo, Carly, Alice Horton (who was hospitalized and later received a pace maker after having a heart attack), Jack, Jennifer, Frankie and Julie Williams.
When Bo saw that Roman was not going to let the Riverfront Raider case go, he left town again for a few days, but returned to Salem the day before Christmas 1990. He had heard that Alice was resisting the doctor's suggestion that she needed a pacemaker. He always felt a special bond with Mrs. H, so he decided to help her out. He didn't want anyone to know he was in town, so he got Shawn Douglas, and dressed him in an elf's outfit, while he dressed as Santa. Together, they visited Alice in the hospital and convinced her to have the pacemaker put in. Roman immediately went after Bo. Bo told him that he decided to turn himself in and Roman couldn't believe his ears. Bo then asked Roman if he could spend Christmas with Shawn Douglas first. Roman eventually agreed, but the Commissioner wouldn't hear any of it. According to him Bo was a criminal and should pay for what he had done. Just as Bo was about to be arrested, his whole family, along with everyone living on the Riverfront, showed up at the police station. They all demanded that Bo be allowed to spend Christmas with his family. In the end they succeeded and Bo went home with Shawn and Caroline.
The day after Christmas, Bo's hearing took place. Mickey Horton asked Carly to testify on behalf of Bo. Emmy, who was madly in love with Bo, was asked to testify against him. She had to tell the judge exactly what Bo had done and she felt awful about this. After her testimony things didn't look too good for Bo. According to Mickey Bo could go to jail for a long time. But then Carly took the stand and told the judge about Bo's personal circumstances at the time of his criminal activities. She told her about Hope's death and about Shawn D's accident, which was caused by Jencon. She also told the judge that no-one believed that Bo should be punished for what he had done. They all thought he was a hero. After hearing this, the judge decided to let Bo off with a one year probation and 1000 hours of community work. Bo was very happy about this! Emmy apologized to him for testifying against him, but he couldn't stop looking over her shoulder at Carly - she was the one who helped him out of this mess. Later on Carly arrived at the boat with a bottle of champagne, but Bo told her that he's not a champagne-drinker and went down below. Carly was a bit surprised by this and turned to go, but just then Bo came out again with two glasses and they celebrated his victory...
Storyline summary written by Susan Venter. Additional details added by me.