Episode VII would begin roughly 20 (or perhaps 30 or 40) years after the end of Return of the Jedi.
R2-D2 and C-3PO would be the only characters who might continue through all nine films.
The trilogy would deal with the rebuilding of the republic.
"It's like a saga, the story of a group of people, a family" (Lucas).
The focus would be on Luke Skywalker’s journey to becoming the premier Jedi knight, with Luke's sister (who was not Leia) appearing in Episode VIII, and the first appearance of Emperor, and Luke's ultimate confrontation with him, in Episode IX (a storyline as planned pre-1980, according to Kurtz).
Luke would have a romantic relationship with a female love interest.
The main theme of the trilogy would be moral and philosophical problems, such as the necessity for moral choices and the wisdom needed to distinguish right from wrong, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned.
The key actors, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, would appear, in their 60s or 70s.
In Episode IX, Hamill would cameo, "like Obi Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope" (according to Hamill).