It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life. One day, she reaches her breaking point and sets out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist --- the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

Welcome to Cobble Hill. In this eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood, private storms brew amongst four married couples and their children. There’s ex-groupie Mandy, so underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state that she fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her husband, Stuart. There’s the unconventional new school nurse, Peaches, on whom Stuart has an unrequited crush, and her disappointing husband Greg, who wears noise-cancelling headphones everywhere. Roy, a newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel and his marriage to Wendy. Around the corner, Tupper, a nervous, introverted industrial designer, struggles to pin down his elusive artist wife, Elizabeth.

Raised outside of Boston, Ivy Lin’s immigrant grandmother relies on Ivy’s mild appearance for cover as she teaches her granddaughter how to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops. Thieving allows Ivy to accumulate the trappings of a suburban teen --- and, most importantly, to attract the attention of Gideon Speyer, the golden boy of a wealthy political family. But when Ivy’s mother discovers her trespasses, Ivy is sent to China, and her dream instantly evaporates. Years later, Ivy is back in Boston and bumps into Sylvia Speyer, Gideon’s sister. Just as she is about to have everything she’s ever wanted, a ghost from Ivy’s past resurfaces, threatening the nearly perfect life she’s worked so hard to build.

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote --- and perhaps not even to live --- the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

Concert pianist Diana is finally ready to marry her longtime fiance, Arie; she’s even composing a beautiful love song for him, and finishes it while on tour. Before she can play it for him, though, tragedy strikes --- and Diana is lost to Arie forever. But her song might not be. In Australia, Arie is struggling to cope with his loss. In Scotland, a woman named Evie is taking stock of her life after the end of another lackluster almost-relationship. Years of wandering the globe and failing to publish her poetry have taken their toll, and she finally might be ready to find what her travels have never been able to give her: a real home. And through a quirk of fate or circumstance, Diana’s song is passed from musician to musician. By winding its way around the world, it just might bring these two lost souls together.

Benson and Mike have been together for a few years, but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. When Mike finds out that his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan, he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.

France, 1714. In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever --- and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of her twin sister Summer’s seemingly never-ending good fortune. When Summer calls Iris to Thailand to help her sail the family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris has secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But after a disturbing incident in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes. Now Iris has the chance to step into the golden life she’s always envied --- and get one step closer to the hundred-million-dollar inheritance left by her manipulative father. All Iris would need to do is ensure she’s the first of his seven children to fulfill the strange conditions of his will. But Iris soon discovers that her twin was keeping more than one secret, and her life lurches between glamorous dream and paranoid nightmare.

It's 1634, and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent. Among the other guests is Sara Wessel, a noblewoman with a secret. But no sooner is their ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A strange symbol appears on the sail. A dead leper stalks the decks. Livestock dies in the night. And then the passengers hear a terrible voice, whispering to them in the darkness, promising three unholy miracles, followed by a slaughter. With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent and Sara can solve a mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.