Deep in the muddy fields of the Lincolnshire Fens, a teenage girl is found wandering, delirious, claiming to have been drugged at a party. Metres away, the drowned body of another girl is found on an isolated beach. And all this on a small stretch of land where, nearly 10 years ago, the shocking disappearance of a young girl remains an open case.

A young woman is haunted by two murders that are closely linked -- despite the 110 years that separate them.

Following the breakup of her marriage and her pursuit by an obsessed stalker, criminal defense attorney Emily Graham accepts an offer to work in a major Manhattan law firm. Feeling a need for roots, she buys her ancestral home in New Jersey, which her family sold in 1892, after the disappearance of young Madeline Shapley, one of Emily's forebears.

Kay Lansing grew up the daughter of the landscaper to the wealthy and powerful Carrington family. One day, accompanying her father to work, six-year-old Kay overhears a quarrel between a man and a woman that ends with the man's caustic response: "I heard that song before." That same evening, young Peter Carrington drives the 19-year-old daughter of neighbors home from a formal dinner dance at the Carrington estate, but she is not in her room the next morning and is never seen or heard from again.

Nicholas Spencer, charismatic head of a company involved in the development of an anticancer vaccine, suddenly disappears. His private plane crashes en route to Puerto Rico, but his body is not found. Early results of the vaccine seemed highly promising. Yet, coinciding with Nicholas Spencer's disappearance comes news that the FDA is denying approval. Then follows the shocking revelation that Spencer had looted huge sums of money - including the lifetime savings of people who had risked everything.

In the picturesque village of Branscombe, New Hampshire, the townsfolk are all pitching in to prepare for the first (and many hope, annual) Festival of Joy. The night before the festival begins, a group of employees at the local market learn that they have won $160 million in the lottery. One of their co-workers, Duncan, decided at the last minute, on the advice of a pair of crooks masquerading as financial advisers, not to play. Then he goes missing.

Hours after throwing a third birthday party for their twins Kathy and Kelly in their Connecticut home, Margaret and Steve Frawley return home from a dinner in New York to discover the police in the house, their daughters missing, and an eight million dollar ransom note. The Frawleys meet the kidnapper's demands, but the abandoned car they're led to contains only Kelly, the body of the driver, and a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and dumped her body in the ocean.

At the age of 10, Liza Barton shot her mother in their New Jersey home while trying to protect her from her violent stepfather. Despite her stepfather's claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Trying to erase every trace of Liza's past, her adoptive parents changed Liza's name to Celia. At the age of 28, she married a 60 year-old widower, and they had a son. Before their marriage, Celia confided the secret of her earlier life.

At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway - one of the fashion world's most successful photographers - is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter and invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island. But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered, apparently by a burglar. Heartbroken, Maggie is stunned to learn she had inherited Nuala's stunning Victorian home...and horrified when she begins to suspect that Nuala's death was not random, but part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted mind.

Eighteen-year-old Kerry Dowling is found fully dressed at the bottom of the family pool. She threw a party the night before, while her parents were away; her house was full of people. But no one saw anything. The police immediately suspect her boyfriend, with whom she had a bitter argument at the party. But other people had a grudge against Kerry, too, including her 20-year-old neighbour. Everyone knows he wanted to come to the party. Everyone knows how angry he was that Kerry didn't invite him. 

As the sole assistant to a famous upscale interior designer, Lane Harmon, mother to five-year-old Katie, is accustomed to visiting opulent homes around the tristate area. A born optimist, Lane finds the glimpse into these gilded worlds fascinating and loves the reward of exceeding the expectations of their often-demanding owners. When she is called to assist in redecorating a modest townhouse in Bergen County, she knows the job is unusual.