In this instance the term 'daisy chain' refers to the wiring. Normally with RS485 you do not receive then retransmit unless you're building a hub or segment link. So everybody (each node) sees the same data at the same time (ignoring propogation delay and quantum effects!). Normally you would choose a master/slave arrangement where one device is the master (a PC maybe) that polls each of the devices in turn (each slave has a different node address as specified in the protocol) so that only one device can 'talk' at one time. You can also implement multi-master by having the sending device listen in on the RS485 bus, if the received data is different to what it is sending, then there is a 'collision' on the bus and it should stop sending. Things start getting a little more complex from herein that's why it is usually best to have a single master system.

Then we get into discussion of protocols, 9bit modes etc. Personally I use Modbus protocol, but there are many others that may suit your application better. With Modbus, it sees the world as 16 bit registers and bits. Each slave implements a group of bits and/or registers, the master reads or writes these registers and/or bits by sending read or write commands. http://www.modbus.org has the specifications.