Michael Beard is a Nobel prize winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. While he coasts along in his professional life, Michael's personal life is another matter entirely. His fifth marriage is crumbling under the weight of his infidelities....

After a man is almost killed in a bombing raid, the married woman with whom he has been having an affair breaks away from him.

Fleeing with her two daughters who have never seen the world outside of their polygamous compound, a desperate woman crashes her car in rural Oklahoma, where she finds unlikely help from a farmer grieving the loss of his wife.

Blame the booze, her shaky marriage, her troubled son, or a thousand other things. Jewelann Jordan has one thing on her mind when she attends her class reunion, and that's making sure her old crush Christian Campbell sees exactly what he lost all those years ago. A late night, a hotel room, a rekindled flame that burns even hotter than it did back then. What could go wrong? Everything.

"Life hasn't always been perfect for Abe and Cassandra Green, but an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. Abe is a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new boat. Cassandra is a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, they've made things work. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. Cassandra has been unfaithful....

Tim, an affable young man with modest ambition, is infatuated with Maud the moment they meet in hte University Sailing Club. A career scientist who betrays little of herself, Maud is found by some to be enchanting, by others distant. There is little to suggest that she has any need of anyone. Tim ties his life to hers, but slowly the marriage unravels as she quietly refuses to conform to the conventional demands of wife and mother. A sudden tragedy...