South Carolina high school senior Nat has worked hard to put her trailer-park past behind her, and when she and her boyfriend are crowned Palmetto Prince and Princess everything would be perfect, except that a prank they played a few nights before went horribly awry.

Starting her junior year at an ultra-elite Boston school, sixteen-year-old Sara, hoping to join the popular crowd, hides that her father not only is the school janitor, but also has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"From the popular author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the words, "I was told that my father was killed in the war." A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he's left school....

For soccer games Sierra rides a bus out of the city to fields that are nicer than the "lot" in her neighborhood, but so her auntie can be at her last game, she asks Coach Marco if the team might play in her neighborhood on a day her aunt does not work. "Nada hace tan feliz a Sierra como el fútbol. Sobre todo, cuando sus zapatillas con llamas hacen que el balón ruede por el inmenso mar de grama limpia. Pero, al mismo tiempo, nada la pone tan triste...

A very small mouse of unknown origins runs away from school in the Royal Mews of Buckingham Palace shortly before the celebration of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, celebrating her sixty years on the British throne.