Just bought the game and was trying it for the first time, but I ran into some confusion.

Please tell me if i am understanding the first turn correctly?

On the first turn of the game you draw your seven and can play five gold worth of cards from your hand. Then after the plot and draw phase you have the marshaling phase where you can play more characters and items and what not from the gold you have earned from your plot, locations etc right?

On turn number two you do not do the whole five gold thing right, and only play characters during the marshaling phase right?

Sorry for all the ?'s

You are correct -- Setup happens before the First Turn, and after that Turns happen normally with all the phases listed on your House Card.

In set up you aren't playing 5 gold, you are putting up to 5 gold's worth of characters, locations and setup specific attachments into play. You can only place 1 limited card during setup. Each player does this at the same time. After you reveal, both players draw back up to seven cards and the first turn begins.

This link has a ton of good information for new players.

I second that link Flagrin posted. It's awesome!