In a perfect life far into the future, wherein inhabitants of the underground settlement America-Five enjoy nearly eternal life and zero pain, workers in the Office of Mercy are compelled to eliminate the suffering of the nomadic tribes roaming outside…by tracking and killing them. Then one worker, 24-year-old Natasha, begins to doubt.

Louisa Clark takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life and is pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Louisa refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

Neill Bassett is working hard to become accustomed to his life as a recently divorced single while also trying to breathe new life into his father. Although Neill Bassett Senior died years ago, he left behind tons of detailed journals that his son has inputted into an artificial intelligence company's computer. Shockingly, the experiment may actually work, resurrecting the man who, while alive, was a mystery to his son.

Elsa Emerson relishes appearing onstage, where she soaks up the approval of her father and the embrace of the audience. But when tragedy strikes her family, her acting becomes more than a child's game of pretend. While still in her teens, Elsa marries and flees to Los Angeles. There she is discovered by Irving Green, one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, who refashions her as a serious, exotic brunette and renames her Laura Lamont.

For more than 30 years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, seemingly for one reason: Edie's enormous girth. When Richard abandons her, it is up to the next generation of Middlesteins to take control. Do Edie's devastating choices rest on her shoulders alone, or are others at fault, too?

Jill Anthony finds her husband in bed with another woman; Lisa Carlucci is sick and tired of having meaningless sex; and 10-year-old Cassie Jones no longer believes in anything anymore after losing her mother to cancer. The lives of these three people, who are at the crossroads of heartbreak and healing, will be changed one winter in Sparkle.

At the turn of the 20th century, reclusive orchardist William Talmadge tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to see the man who gave them no chase and end up indulging in his deep reservoir of compassion. But just as they begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, leading to a shattering tragedy.

Life is good for Maura Corrigan. Married to her college sweetheart, Pete, raising three young kids with her parents nearby in her peaceful Chicago suburb, her world is secure. Then one day, in a single turn of fate, that entire world comes crashing down and everything that she thought she knew changes.

Carmen wishes Jobe, the husband she never loved, dead --- only to fall in love with him after he is gone. As she helps her three children grieve, she discovers, after a tryst with her most recent lover, that her own life may be in danger. Her emotions reeling, Carmen reflects on the fateful days of her youth that made her the person she has become: privileged suburban wife, unfaithful widow, mother of a child with Down syndrome, fierce friend.

Sonnet Romano is leading a seemingly perfect life until her mother drops the news that she’s expecting and the pregnancy is high risk. Sonnet feels compelled to put everything else on hold and return home to Avalon. Although she plans to pick up her life where she left off once her mother is out of danger, a devastating diagnosis is given, forcing Sonnet to make life-altering decisions.