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As the week opens, 50-something Hugh Argylle, owner of the Argylle Art Gallery, has a jarring fall from a ladder - a fall that leaves him with a fractured off-kilter vision of his own life and the lives of his friends, who are going through crises that leave them despairing, afraid, one half-step from going under emotionally or financially. Someone's going to have to fix all that, thinks Hugh - and it will probably be him.

This novel tells of Golden Richards, a man who, despite having four wives and 28 children, hasn't quite found fulfillment in life. And even after he falls in love again and takes a mistress, life continues to fall short of expectations.

Albert Schmidt, proud traditional gentleman and lawyer of the old school, was almost down for the count. His beloved wife was dead, he had stumbled into early retirement, and relations with his cherished and perfectly bred daughter couldn't have been worse. The only glimmer of salvation was his unlikely love affair with Carrie, a Puerto Rican waitress younger than his daughter.

Fortysomething sportswriter Jack Brannon is bored to tears with the men's tour. So he decides to check out Ginger Clayton, the hot, new franchise babe on the ladies' links. Things get interesting in a hurry, as it becomes clear somebody wants the gorgeous superstar disqualified for good.

Lil Olive, the leader of a group of feisty elderly women, decides that she is restless at the Rosehaven nursing home. Lil and her friends need some excitement in their dull lives. So, the group of women steal a car and hit the road in search of adventures, which include hilariously unforgettable trips to the local CVS and Hardee's, and end with an encounter with the law.

Old-school lawyer Albert Schmidt has spent years climbing the ladder of success. But now, at what should be the pinnacle of his career, he is widowed, forcibly retired and harbors mixed feelings about his daughter's impending marriage. Suddenly, a seductive young woman asks Smitty what he wants.

In his novel Indian Summer, William Dean Howells presents a mellow but realistic story that has the complete feel of that delightful time of the year, although the plot actually spans several seasons. The Indian summer aspect applies to a sophisticated gentleman, Theodore Colville, who has just entered his middle years as he returns to a scene, Florence, Italy, that played an important part in his early manhood. It was here twenty years earlier that he first fell in love, seemingly successfully until a sudden and harsh rejection.