Penny Golightly arrived in Beckindale in 1973 after hearing that her father, Ian McIntyre was living in the village. Upon finding who she was, Joe Sugden and Matt Skilbeck took her back to Emmerdale Farm where Annie Sugden broke the news to her of her father's death. Wanting to be close to the last place where her father was alive, Penny started a close friendship with Jack Sugden and after helping him to decorate the old Millhouse, he agreed to let her live there and even let two of her friends, Gwen Russell and David Reece, stay for a while.