As Alexandra Winslow climbs the ladder of publishing success, she resolutely adheres to her father's caution: men only read crime thrillers written by men. She publishes under the pseudonym of brilliantly successful Alexander Green, her true identity known only to those closest to her. This creates an isolating double life, but the right time to open up always seems just out of reach and the price of the truth always too high....

Sybil and Blake Gregory have established a predictable, well-ordered Manhattan life - she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high tech investments - raising their teenagers, Andrew and Caroline, and six-year-old Charlie. But everything changes when Blake is offered a dream job he can't resist as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco. He accepts it without consulting his wife and buys a magnificent, irresistibly underpriced historic Pacific Heights mansion as their new home.

Ellen Wharton has flown into New York from London, regardless of the weather and her husband's worry. The successful interior designer is intent on seeing her lively architect mother and has an important personal appointment to keep. But despite Ellen's urging, when the storm hits, seventy-four-year-old Grace Madison refuses to leave her Tribeca apartment in the midst of the evacuation zone, and they must eventually wade through chest-high water to the police boats outside.

The daughter and granddaughter of prominent Manhattan lawyers, Meredith McKenzie is destined for the best of everything: top schools, elite social circles, the perfect marriage. Spending her childhood in Germany as her father prosecutes Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, Meredith soaks up the conflict between good and evil as it plays out in real time. When her family returns to the United States, she begins blazing her own trail, swimming against the tides, spurred on by her freethinking liberal grandfather, determined to become a lawyer despite her traditional, conservative father's objections.

Kate Madison's children are grown and ready to forge lives of their own. Her daughter Isabelle is a dedicated attorney until she falls for a client she represents in a criminal case.... And then there's Julie, who meets a man who seems too good to be true, for good reason. Justin is a struggling writer who pushes for children with his partner before they're ready. And Willie, the youngest child, makes a choice that shocks them all.... Kate can't keep her children from playing against the odds. The hardest lesson will be that she can't protect them from the choices they make.

Sydney Wells’ perfect, golden life vanishes when her devoted husband dies suddenly in an accident. Widowed at 49, she discovers that he has failed to include her in his will. Sydney is removed from the beautiful house that has been her home for 16 years. Despite warnings from her own daughters, Sydney returns to the world of fashion she’d enjoyed as a talented young designer. Her girls only want the best for their mother, but they are concerned she’s back in a world she is no longer familiar with. 

Faded photographs of a glamorous couple in postwar Europe. Old letters hinting of tragic loss. And a breathtaking array of magnificent jewelry, spectacular stones in exquisite settings. These are the contents of a safe-deposit box long abandoned in a New York City bank. If no heir can be identified, the jewelry will be auctioned. But who was the woman who left such a fortune and no will?

At 18 Angélique Latham is her father's closest, most trusted child, schooled in managing their grand estate. But when he dies, her half-brothers brutally turn her out. Unable to secure employment without connections, Angélique desperately makes her way to Paris, where she rescues a young woman fleeing an abusive madam. With her upper-class breeding, her impeccable style and her father's bequest, Angélique creates Le Boudoir, soon a sensational establishment where powerful men, secret desires and beautiful women come together.

Stephanie Adams is a devoted stay-at-home mother, married to a successful lawyer in northern California, in a dead marriage she stayed in for years for the sake of her children. Then, on a ski trip in Squaw Valley, her fifty-two-year-old husband dies suddenly and all bets are off.

Hope Dunne has carved out a name for herself as a top photographer, known the joys of marriage and motherhood and the heartbreak of loss. In her chic SoHo loft, Hope is content with her life, finding serenity and beauty through the lens of her camera. She isn't looking for a man or excitement. But these things find her when she accepts a last-minute assignment to fly to London at Christmas and photograph one of the world's most celebrated writers - an Irish-American author known for novels of thrilling literary darkness.