Penelope "Poppy" Nozawa is a free spirit who had her daughter, Luna Nozawa, at a young age; Poppy raised Luna alone. Poppy had run afoul of her sister, Li Finnegan, who, as a doctor, had gotten Poppy a job at her hospital's gift shop. But Poppy had an affair with a married doctor on staff, which jeopardized Li's career. When aspiring fashion designer Luna moved to Los Angeles and took a job as an intern at prestigious design house Forrester Creations, Poppy repeatedly called her daughter and implored her to quit fearing Li's reaction, as Li's son, John "Finn" Finnegan, was married to Forrester's co-CEO, Steffy Forrester.

Soon, Poppy made an extended visit to Los Angeles, where she continued to clash with Li, who was resentful of the fact that Poppy could have a child while Li was unable to get pregnant and had to adopt. Poppy reconnected with her adoptive nephew, Finn, and reminisced with him about having stayed with Finn's parents the year before Luna was born. Poppy refused to give Luna an answer when she kept demanding to know who her father was, and freaked when Luna threatened to have tests done to find out. Meanwhile, Poppy ran across Bill Spencer, Jr.; though she initially denied having any connection to him, she eventually confirmed that they had had a fling after meeting at a music festival some 20 years earlier. Poppy accepted a date with Bill, but quashed his theory that he might have fathered Luna.

Poppy was fond of taking infused "special mints"; one day Luna came home, distraught that, after a party, she had made love to co-worker Zende Forrester Dominguez, thinking he was her boyfriend, R.J. Forrester. Poppy noted Luna's symptoms and realized that Luna had taken her dosed mints instead of regular ones, on top of alcohol served at the party. Poppy was aghast when Luna accused her of drugging her; Poppy also exchanged blame with Zende, who had a thing for Luna. When Luna lamented not being able to talk to her father about what had happened with Zende, Poppy went to Finn and encouraged him to be there for Luna.