When Cora Belle first arrives at college, she’s determined to grow out of the shy, sheltered girl who attended an all-white prep school and finally find her community. What she’s totally unprepared for is Lincoln. After all, how can you ever prepare for the rollercoaster of first love? Just when Cora thinks she has things figured out, a shocking tragedy sends her reeling, and a new man, Aaron, enters her life. There’s just one problem: How can she fall in love with one man when her heart still belongs to another? Nearly two decades later, Cora is all grown up and has closed her heart to romantic love. But an unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter puts her right back where she started, having to choose between her two great loves, Lincoln and Aaron.

Cinnamon Haynes has fought hard for a life she never thought was possible. Her life’s mantra is to be good, quiet and grateful. Until something shifts, and Cinnamon is suddenly haunted by a terrifying question: “Is this all there is?” Daisy Dunlap has had her own share of problems in her 19 years on earth. Her hopes for her future are threatened when she gets unexpectedly pregnant. She hides this development from everyone close to her and then makes a drastic decision with devastating consequences. When Cinnamon finds an abandoned baby in a park and takes the newborn into her home, the ripple effects of this decision risk exposing the truth about Cinnamon’s own past, which she has gone to great pains to portray as idyllic to everyone…even herself.

Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young and is finally pregnant after years of trying. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia. But the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. Six months pregnant, Jen is in freefall as her future, her husband’s freedom and her friendship with Riley are thrown into uncertainty.