The Kellehers' Maine property sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast. As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears.

It is 1864 and the nation is still torn apart by civil war when Heather Worth discovers she is with child. She has been working as a laundress with her husband's army unit, but when the army gets orders to march south to Tennessee, Gideon insists Heather go home to have their child under safer conditions. Heather agrees, but returns home to another kind of devastation--deaths in the family and a father who refuses to forgive her for marrying a Yankee....

At thirty, Charlotte Wheelwright remains the dreamer she's always been. But when she begins an organic garden on a portion of her grandmother's land, Charlotte learns to plant her feet in solid ground and begins to build a new life.More often than not, ninety-year-old Nona Wheelwright contentedly spends her time reminiscing about days gone by. But with her family's annual reunion and financial meeting looming, Nona must give up her days of quiet solitude...

"A woman whose looks have always defined her, who has spent a lifetime trying to prove that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere, tries to be herself even as multiple men try to categorize and own her"--

Caddie's plans for a pleasant summer with her grandmother must be changed when the older woman is injured.

Dying, Laura Spelman looks upon her illness as a journey during which she must take account of her life, see the connections between things, and then let go.

Tara is gorgeous, affluent, and forty. She lives in an impeccably restored Russian Hill mansion in San Francisco. Once a widow, twice divorced, she's a woman with a past she prefers keeping to herself. Enter Cavin Lattimore. He's handsome, kind, charming, and the surgeon assigned to Tara following a ski accident in Lake Tahoe. In the weeks it takes her to recover, Cavin sweeps her off her feet and their relationship blossoms into something Tara had...

Its the year 1930, and Anna May Shahans world is about to change. The eccentric housewife from the small woop woop town of Esperance, Australia, lives on an isolated farm by the sea with her loyal husband James, and they lead a simple, hardworking life. That is until Annas beautiful widowed cousin Lottie returns from the States after being absent for over a decade. Lottie confesses to Anna her hearts greatest desire to have a child, and Anna, in fear...

"A massive storm was coming straight for Mama's little plot of land in the Mississippi Delta and there was no way any of them could outrun the weather. For three years Melody Mahaffey has been on the road, touring as a keyboardist with a terrible Christian pop band she can hardly stand. So when her mother calls, full of her usual dire news and dramatic pronouncements, Melody is relieved to pack her bags and call it quits. But at the sprawling, defunct...