Adult

Albert Entwistle is a private man with a quiet, simple life in his northern England village. He lives alone with his cat, Gracie. And he’s a postman. At least he was a postman until, three months before his 65th birthday, he receives a letter from the Royal Mail thanking him for decades of service and stating he is being forced into retirement. At once, Albert’s sole connection with his world unravels. Rather than continue his lonely existence, Albert forms a brave plan to start truly living. It’s finally time to be honest about who he is. To seek the happiness he’s always denied himself. And to find the courage to look for George, the man who, many years ago, he loved and lost --- but has never forgotten.

Pregnant and abandoned by her husband, Alice Butterworth leaves Chicago’s bitter cold and travels to New Orleans, where she offers sewing lessons at an orphanage. Young widow Constance Halstead has thrown herself into charity work since her husband’s death. Seeing Alice’s skill, she offers lodging in exchange for help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras. As the breathtaking gown takes shape piece by piece, it becomes a symbol of empowerment for them both. But overshadowing all is the Black Hand, the vicious New Orleans gang to whom Constance’s husband was deep in debt. As Mardi Gras draws near, a secret emerges that will cement the bond between Alice and Constance, even as it threatens the new lives each is building.

Six people, six secrets, six different backgrounds. They would never have met if not for their connection to the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When someone falls down an elevator shaft at the facility, each becomes caught up in an intensifying chain of events. We meet Serge, an unstable but brilliant street photographer; Marta, an undocumented immigrant finishing her dissertation and hiding from ICE; Liddy, an abused wife and mother, who recreates her children’s bedroom in her unit; Jason, a former corporate lawyer now practicing in the facility; Rose, the office manager, who takes illegal kickbacks to let renters live in the building; and Zach, the building’s owner and an ex-drug dealer, who scans Serge’s photos as he searches for clues to the accident. But was it an accident?

In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite --- their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story. When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines and details that just don’t add up.

Ghanaian-American Angela Appiah has checked off all the boxes for the “Perfect Immigrant Daughter”: Enroll in an elite medical school. Snag a suitable lawyer/doctor/engineer boyfriend. Surround self with a gaggle of successful and/or loyal friends. But then it quickly all falls apart: her boyfriend dumps her, she bombs the most important exam of her medical career, and her best friend pulls away. And her parents, whose approval seems to hinge on how closely she follows the path they chose, are a lot less proud of their daughter. Suddenly, Angie begins to question everything. And just when things couldn’t get more complicated, enter Ricky Gutierrez, who seems to see Angie for who she is instead of what she can represent.

On the little Scottish island of Mure, Flora MacKenzie and her fiancé, Joel, are planning the smallest of “sweetheart weddings,” a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them. Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonald --- who left Mure 10 years ago for bigger and brighter things --- returns with a wedding planner in tow. Her fiancé has oodles of family money, and Olivia is determined to throw the biggest, most extravagant, most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it at Flora’s hotel, the same weekend as Flora’s carefully planned micro-wedding. As the summer solstice approaches, can Flora handle everyone else’s Happy Every Afters --- and still get her own?

Louisa has come to her parents’ house in Maine this summer with all three of her kids, a barely written book and a trunkful of resentment. She is hoping that the vacation will soothe the irritation she is feeling about her life choices and replace it with enthusiasm for both her family and her work. But all isn’t well in Maine. Louisa’s father, a retired judge, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Louisa’s mother is alternately pretending everything is fine and not pretending at all. And one of Louisa’s children happens upon a very confusing letter referring to something Louisa doesn’t think her father could possibly have done. Louisa is not the only one searching for something in Maine this summer.

For years, CIA officer Sam Hudson has been hunting Konstantin, a Russian deep-cover operative responsible for a string of assassinations in the West --- and he believes a well-placed source in Geneva can finally get him close to the killer. But when their meeting is ambushed, Sam’s partner is murdered and he barely makes it out alive himself. Back in the States, the bosses put him on leave and want him to drop his obsession with Konstantin, but Sam can’t let a man who’s taken so many lives slip away again. When he gets a mysterious call at the Lincoln Memorial just before a bomb goes off, he realizes Konstantin has followed him to the U.S. --- and is targeting him and everyone close to him.

Ava Wong is a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son and a beautiful home. But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling. Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, 20 years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. She has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.

Jessica, Stephanie and Priyanka are complete strangers, but they have one thing in common: they’ve each received a letter accusing their husbands of committing a sexual assault more than two decades prior. Is the accusation true, or is there more to the story? It was a secret that remained buried for years. With their worlds suddenly turned upside down, they don’t know who to trust --- a complete stranger or the men they love and built their lives with. The three women come together to embark on a hunt for the truth, but they are hardly prepared for what they will discover. Who is the victim, and will justice ultimately be served?