It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways.

The Nash family is close-knit. However, their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when Deenie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class. Rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through the family, school and community. As hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families and the town's fragile idea of security.

On the eve of World War I, a rift develops between best friends Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden as Kezia marries Tom, Thea's brother. Thea, scornful of Kezia's future as a farmer's wife, turns to political causes that transform her into a hunted outlaw. When Tom and Thea head off to the battlefields and Kezia takes over the farm, all three are challenged and changed.

After a string of betrayals and the loss of her legacy, Portia Cuthcart is determined to start a new life with her sisters in Manhattan…and never cook again. But when Portia moves into a dilapidated brownstone on the Upper West Side, she meets 12-year-old Ariel and her widowed father, Gabriel. Soon, a promise made to her sisters forces Portia back into a world of magical food and swirling emotions, where she must confront everything she has been running from.

Artist Richard Haddon is in despair. He's supposedly "successful" in that his art is selling, but he despises the work he’s doing. Even worse, his mistress has dumped him, and his once-wonderful marriage has turned frosty and impersonal. Just when you might think his life cannot get any worse, it does, making his road to redemption rough indeed --- as well as a terrific read.

Kelly Wilder becomes recently widowed from a much older wealthy man with whom she spent her married life doing charity work and building a lovely home. Now, with too much time and money on her hands, Kelly has absolutely no idea what happens next. So, on a whim, she signs up for a ballroom dancing class and slowly, step by high-heeled step, begins to rebuild her life with the help of friends old and new.

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their 35th wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. But all does not go according to plan. Over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

True-crime aficionado Vera Lundy has just landed a job as a private school substitute teacher in a small Maine town, where she encounters close-to-home true-crime action, beginning with the recent murder of a local girl. The environment grows ever more ominous as Vera forges a connection with an odd but brilliant student.

Constance, the woman who taught journalist Kitty Logan everything she knew, is dying. At her mentor's bedside, Kitty asks her, "What is the one story you always wanted to write?" The answer lies in a single sheet of paper buried in Constance's office --- a list of 100 names --- with no notes or explanation. But before she can ask her friend, it is too late. Determined to unlock the mystery, Kitty begins piecing together an unexpected portrait of Constance's life...and starts to understand her own.

Chloe is a magazine editor in London who is embarking on an exciting romance with James, her handsome publisher. Maggie is a freelance magazine writer living in a quaint English village…and she is James's wife. Chloe and Maggie's perspectives on this complicated romantic triangle are told in alternating chapters as the affair progresses.