At twenty-four, Gordon McKenna thinks he's already heard the worst news of his life when he learns that his sister Georgia is fatally ill. Then Georgia and her husband die in a car accident, leaving behind their baby daughter, Keefer. Gordon and his parents are able to survive their sorrow only by devoting themselves to the care of the beloved one-year-old. But the decision of who will raise Keefer is far from over, and soon Gordon's most basic assumptions...

Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami in Brisbane, American expat and former police officer Frank Mercy goes out to join his volunteer rescue unit and pulls a little boy from a submerged car, saving the childs life with only seconds to spare. In that moment, Franks own life is transformed. Not quite knowing why, Frank sidesteps the law, when, instead of turning Ian over to the Red Cross, he takes the boy...

Back in high school, Tracy, Olivia, and Holly were the girls everyone wanted to know, and their bond survived the years. Now, two decades later, Olivia's wealthy Italian husband has died, and the women reunite on a luxury sailboat crossing in the Caribbean. Together with Tracy's college-aged daughter and an attentive two-man crew, they sail into paradise. Then the smallest mistake triggers a series of devastating events. Suddenly, in a desperate fight...

When Eliot and Laura Banner learn that Laura has a terminal condition, they gather their children and family around themselves during the holiday season to convey her blessings to them for the future and remember their shared history.

Doling out advice in a Wisconsin newspaper column, Julianne Ambrose Gillis struggles with the challenges of her husband's inexplicable abandonment and her subsequent diagnosis with a serious illness.

Despite her fatal allergy to sunlight, XP, and the risk to all she holds dear, Allie Kim is determined to see Garrett Tabor brought to justice and may get her chance when she and Rob uncover a horrible secret Tabor has hidden under Lake Superior.

"Twelve-year-old Veronica's Swan's idyllic life in a close-knit Mormon community is shattered when her two younger sisters are brutally murdered. Although her parents find the strength to forgive the deranged killer, Scott Early, Veronica cannot do the same." "Years later, she sets out alone to avenge her sisters' deaths, dropping her identity and severing ties in the process. But as she closes in on Early, Veronica will discover the true meaning...

Beth Cappadora finds herself in the midst of every parent's nightmare when her three-year-old son vanishes without a trace from a Chicago hotel lobby, throwing Beth, her husband Pat, and their son Vincent into a turmoil that ravages their lives.

Identical twins Meredith and Mallory Brynn have always shared one another's thoughts, but the connection between them fades when one begins to see the future and the other the past.

A collection of essays drawn from the author's newspaper column, "The Rest of Us," in which she discusses the joys and dramas of everyday life.