Adult

A London social worker makes a routine home visit only to discover her client, Michelle Doyce, serving afternoon tea to a naked, decomposing corpse. With no clues as to the dead man’s identity, Chief Inspector Karlsson again calls upon Frieda Klein for help. Frieda discovers that the body belongs to Robert Poole, con man extraordinaire. But she can’t shake the feeling that the past isn’t done with her yet.

Neglected by her parents, 19-year-old Maya Nidal has grown up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with her grandparents. When her grandfather dies of cancer, Maya turns to drugs, alcohol and petty crime. Her one chance for survival is Nini, who helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile. Here Maya tries to make sense of the past, unravels mysterious truths about life and about her family, and embarks on her greatest adventure: the journey into her own soul.

As Alma Whittaker's careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she comes to love draws her in the opposite direction --- into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose is a Utopian artist. But what unites this couple is a shared passion for knowing --- a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all of life.

Lucy Silchester keeps receiving a strange appointment card and sweeping its gold-embossed envelope under the rug. Literally. But she is about to find out that this is one appointment she can't miss, when Life shows up at her door, in the form of a sloppy but determined man. Life follows her, and she learns that some of the choices she has made and the stories she has told aren't what they seem. Now her half-truths are about to be revealed, unless Lucy tells the truth about what really matters to her.

A woman suddenly becomes aware, and is shocked to find herself wading through the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay. However, she has no clue who she is or why she is here. When she returns to her life as Lucie Walker, she must piece together not only the mystery of her amnesia, but also decide who she chooses to be now.

When Evie Ferrante learns that her mother has been hospitalized, she finds her mother's house in chaos. Sorting through her mother's belongings, Evie discovers objects that don't quite belong there, and begins to raise questions. Evie renews a friendship with Mina, an elderly neighbor who might know more about her mother's recent activities. As Evie investigates her mother's actions, a darker story of deception and madness involving Mina emerges.

Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, returns to his hometown in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie's death. He begins to wonder whether the ordinary life Ruthie led was in fact a path of hidden grandeur, even spiritual greatness, concealed within the modest life of a mother and teacher. In order to explore this revelation, Dreher and his wife decide to have their three children grow up amidst the rituals that had defined his family for five generations.

Cecilia Ross is looking for a change. She has decided to take time off from her job as a successful motivational speaker and sell her home. She moves in to a beautiful old house in St. Paul, Minnesota, complete with a big front porch, a wild garden, a chef's kitchen --- and three roommates. The four women are different ages, but all are feeling restless, and want to take a road trip to find again the people and things they miss.

Police officer Nina Hoffman finds her fellow officer David Lindholm naked on his bed with bullets through his head and stomach. His traumatized wife, Julia, rambles on about a woman entering the house, killing David and running off with her son, but all the evidence seems to point in Julia’s direction. Annika Bengtzon covers the case and is drawn in headfirst when she sees that Julia is about to be falsely charged.