Leaving behind a broken friendship with Clare Hart when she elopes at the age of nineteen, Lexi Laney returns to Nantucket after an eleven-year absence and a bitter divorce and struggles to rebuild a childhood friendship destroyed by deception and betrayal.

Lily Fox, the baby of her family, sends her sister Abbie urgent emails begging her to return home to Nantucket. Their middle sister, Emma, has taken to her bed, emotionally devastated after the loss of her high-powered stockbroker's job and a shockingly unexpected break-up with her fiancé. Also, Lily is deeply worried that Marina, the beautiful, enigmatic woman renting their guesthouse, has set her sights on the sisters' widowed father, Jim.

Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley--four middle-aged women who are all feeling over the hill and out of life--get together to form the Hot Flash Club, where they band together to help each other and get the most out of life.

"When Maggie and Emily meet as girls on the Nantucket beach, they are instant best friends--even though Emily's mother would much prefer she play with the daughters of senators and statesmen than a seamstress's kid like Maggie. But after many golden summers spent building sandcastles and sharing their dreams for the future, Emily and Maggie grow apart. In her twenties, beautiful and spirited Emily worries she'll never amount to more than the glittering...