Lancashire, 1930s. When her mother dies, leaving her an old sewing box and a clue to her father's identity, 22-year-old Maisie Bassett is determined to make a fresh start. Changing her name and moving to the small town of Rivenshaw, she finds a respectable job in a grocery store. But unwanted attentions from a man at her new church make life increasingly difficult - until the shy, handsome Gabriel Harte comes to her rescue. Then she receives an inheritance...

What happens to your life when everything you thought you knew about your mother turns out to be an elaborate lie? Ruth Gilmartin discovers the strange and haunting truth about her mother, Sally, during the long hot summer of 1976.

Since the sudden death of her husband, Naomi has steadily rebuilt the life they shared in the village of Tilsham by the sea. Her eldest daughter Martha is sensible and determined - exactly like her father was - and very much in control of where her life is going. If she could just get pregnant with her husband, life would be perfect. Willow, the youngest, was always more sunny and easy-going, yet drifted through life, much to her father's frustration....

What happens when a baby goes missing? Twenty-two years ago, Erin and Vicky's parents were killed in an explosion. Now grown up, Erin and Vicky - who have been separated - are unaware they are siblings. But when Vicky is called to her great-aunt's deathbed, she learns that she isn't alone after all. But where is Erin? Vicky's search begins ... Elsewhere, Christine has problems of her own. In the first week of her new job, she makes a disturbing...

1944. With deadly doodlebugs terrorising London, Bessie Rushbrook agrees to give shelter to eight-year-old evacuee, Marigold, in her Norfolk home. However, the little girl is no stranger, and Bessie must honour the promise she gave to Marigold's mother, Grace, and not reveal her connection to the child. Marigold's arrival stirs up Bessie's memories from the past when the world was at war the first time. She is forced to face her actions from those...

Clover Quinn was a surprise. She used to imagine she was the good kind, now she?s not sure. She?d like to ask Dad about it, but growing up in the saddest chapter of someone else?s story is difficult. She tries not to skate on the thin ice of his memories. Darren has done his best. He's studied his daughter like a seismologist on the lookout for waves and surrounded her with everything she might want - everything he can think of, at least - to be happy....

Star Sullivan: Star Sullivan just wanted everyone to be happy - her father to stop gambling, her mother not to work so hard, her brother to stay out of trouble, her sister to stop worrying about every little thing she ate. Then the Hale family moved in next door, and from the moment Star saw 23-year-old Laddy Hale, everything began to change - until Star was no longer the sweet, thoughtful girl everyone loved and no one worried about ... The Garden...

The news of her mother's death hits Nell as if she's been shot. The letter must be some kind of prank, but who could be so cruel? Because Nell's mother died nearly 30 years ago. When Nell was just a tiny baby, her parents died in a car crash, leaving her to be raised by her devoted grandmother, Lilian. So when the lawyer's letter arrives, informing her of her mother Sarah's very recent death, it destroys everything Nell thought she knew. Her grandmother...

Jerusalem, 1920: in an already fractured city, 11-year-old Prudence feels the tension rising as her architect father launches an ambitious and wildly eccentric plan to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert. Prue, known as the 'little witness', eavesdrops underneath the tables of tearooms and behind the curtains of the dance halls of the city's elite, watching everything but rarely being watched herself. Around her, British...

On the ground, the crowd of men stood with their mouths agape, watching the wings soar into the air, the tail kept impressively steady and the small plane with a woman at the controls disappearing into the May sunshine. It's 1942 and World War Two is in full swing. Roberta 'Bobby' Hollis has joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in a team of pilots known as the 'glamour girls'. Just as capable as the men, these women ferry aircraft, parts and people...