Connected solely by a desk of enormous dimension and many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away, three people--a lonely American novelist clinging to the memory of a poet who has mysteriously vanished in Chile, an old man in Israel facing the imminent death of his wife of 51 years, and an esteemed antiques dealer tracking down the things stolen from his father by the Nazis--struggle to create a meaningful permanence...

When Australian author Nella Pine learns, in middle age, that she was kidnapped as an infant from a hospital in the United States, taken to Australia, and raised by the woman who kidnapped her, her world falls apart. Told from four perspectives, the story examines the lasting impact of a terrible crime.

When a woman's four-year-old son and husband are killed in a suicide bombing at a London soccer match, the woman writes a letter directly to Osama bin Laden to convince him to stop his attacks. The woman then takes a job helping the anti-terrorism effort, but outside her doors, the world feels like a war zone--and it pushes her to desperation.

Photographer Abby Mason's life is changed forever by the disappearance of the young girl with whom she had been walking on a cold and foggy beach, and her desperate search for the truth behind the child's vanishing.

Using witchcraft to extend her considerable life, Evelyn Harbinger dons a youthful appearance to catch the eye of a man she believes to be the reincarnation of a beloved World War II espionage partner who lost his life helping her to advance the Allied cause.

An actor in the twilight of his career reflects on a poignant first love affair at the age of fifteen with his best friend's mother and inexplicably lands a role opposite a famous but fragile actress who helps him come to an astonishing realization.

Seventeen years after the brutal double murder of her parents, Morgan Winter finds her life in turmoil when she discovers that the wrong person was convicted for the crime, and realizes that the true killer has been silently watching her all along.

In 1904, six-year-old Polly Flint is sent to live with her aunts in a house by the sea. Orphaned shortly thereafter, Polly will spend the next eighty years stranded in this quiet corner of the world as 20th century rages in the background. Throughout it all Polly returns again and again to the story of Robinson Crusoe, who, marooned like her, fends off the madness of isolation with imagination.

After his parents are arrested and imprisoned for robbing a bank, fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger who, unbeknownst to Dell, is hiding a dark and violent nature that interferes with Dell's quest to find grace and peace on the prairie of Saskatchewan.

Set in the vineyards of Northern California the story of a young girl who, in the wake of a tragic accident, seeks solace in a damaging love affair with a much older man. Eva, a divorced and happily remarried mother of three, runs a small bookstore in a town north of San Francisco. When her second husband, John, is killed in a car accident, her family's fragile peace is once again overtaken by loss. Emily, the eldest, must grapple with newfound independence...