In the wake of an earthquake that interrupts a celebrity-studded charity dinner dance at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, the lives of four strangers are transformed by the tragedy.

Shattered by the sudden loss of his wife, home, and business, once-successful advertising executive Alan Christoffersen embarks on a cross-country backpacking journey during which he meets people who help him to gain profound spiritual understandings.

A professor's marriage and family begin to unravel when one of his students tells him that he might be her father.

Alex Brady shuts out all relationships when he loses his beloved father in the Twin Towers. Will he have the courage to open his heart to love again?

Peter Webster is a rookie paramedic when he pulls a young woman out of a car wreck that should have killed her. Sheila Arsenault haunts his thoughts, and despite his misgivings Webster is soon embroiled in an intense love affair--and in her troubled life. Eighteen years later, Sheila is long gone and Webster is raising their daughter, Rowan, alone. But Rowan is veering dangerously off course, and for the first time in their quiet existence together,...

"A family saga about two Irish American families in a New York suburb, the love between two of their children, and the tragedies that threaten to tear them apart and destroy their futures"--

When the long walk from Seattle to Key West finally nears an end, Alan Christoffersen must return to the west and face yet another crisis just as he has begun to heal from so much loss.

Hiding the truth about her unhappiness and struggles with anxiety from everyone including her family, best friend, and therapist, Andrea Bern joins her loved ones in a reevaluation of family strength in the wake of her newborn niece's heartbreaking ailment.