Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, escaping the consequences of long-buried family secrets and forced to accept that he'll never marry the woman he desires, joins the Merchant Navy. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat. An American cruise liner rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and an American who dies in the night, providing Harry the chance to escape his tangled past.

When Harry arrives in New York, his publisher Harold Guinzberg tells him he has been elected as the next president of English PEN, which will give him the opportunity to launch a campaign for the release of a fellow author, Anatoly Babakov, who is languishing in a Russian Gulag in Siberia. His crime: writing a book Uncle Joe, which gives an insight into what it was like to work for Josef Stalin. So determined is he to see Babakov released, Harry puts...

Harry Clifton, now a bestselling novelist, his wife Emma, their son Sebastian, and orphaned Jessica make a new life for themselves. But Emma's brother Giles' fiancée may be after his fortune and title. And Sebastian, though bright, has a hard time resisting temptation. It all comes to a head when a new villain is uncovered, a face from the past with grudges against both Harry and Giles.

In the brief golden years of the Edwardian era the McCosh sisters -- Christabel, Ottilie, Rosie and Sophie -- grow up in an idyllic household in the countryside south of London. On one side, their neighbors are the proper Pendennis family, recently arrived from Baltimore, whose close-in-age boys -- Sidney, Albert and Ashbridge -- shake their father's hand at breakfast and address him as "sir." On the other side is the Pitt family: a "resolutely French"...

Eleven-year-old Theodosia's ability to detect black magic raises her suspicions about a magician known as the Great Awi Bubu, while Henry, home for the spring holidays, discovers an artifact at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities that is coveted by every black-cloaked occultist in London.

In the aftermath of the Great War, the De Witt family is struggling to piece together the shattered fragments of their lives. Rudolf and his wife Verena, still reeling from the loss of their second son, don't know how to function in the post-war world. Stoneythorpe Hall has become an empty shell with no servants to ensure its upkeep. Celia, the de Witt's youngest daughter, is still desperate to spread her wings and see more of the world. To escape...