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Ozick takes us to the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s, as New York fills with Europe"s ousted dreamers, turned overnight into refugees. Rose Meadows unknowingly enters this world when she answers an ambiguous want ad for an "assistant" to a Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. Rosie, orphaned at eighteen, has been living with her distant relative Bertram, who sparks her first erotic desires. But just as he begins to return her affection, his lover, a radical socialist named Ninel (Lenin spelled backward), turns her out.

Although Louise Peppers' family is a bit eccentric and dysfunctional, they are also loving and supportive. In conventional Counterpoint, Georgia, Louise grows up to be a "normal" teen. But after the accidental death of her older brother, she can't get her life back on track. When she runs away to join the circus, and seeks comfort in alcohol and sex, her parents struggle to bring her hom. Will their love, however suffocating and complicated, be enough to help Louise come to her senses?

Three weeks after Mary Lou's husband dies, her 14-year-old daughter runs away. Nearly paralyzed with grief, Mary Lou stays grounded through her job at the Dairy Queen. Then one day, she signs up for a single-parenting class. Armed with her newfound courage, she begins a comical, touching quest to find her daughter.

When her mother throws her father out, young Lulu is told never to let him in again. But Lulu disobeys, and the consequences are heartbreaking. Lulu's mother ends up killed, and Lulu and her sister Merry are orphaned. Now, as the sisters grow into adulthood, they find the ghosts of their past are difficult to outrun.

Restauranteur Cass and her fisherman husband Billy have a passionate marriage, filled with steamy sex in semipublic places. But the strain of raising a hearing-impaired daughter is wearing their love thin. When disaster at sea strikes, Cass must lean on her family for the support she needs.

Two brothers, Muir and Moody are as different as night and day and are always at odds. Muir searches for fulfillment with the church while Moody battles inner demons. Ginny, the boys' mother, struggles to keep the family together amidst their constant bickering.

Edward and his family have escaped the heat and violence of inner-city Philadelphia every summer for the last 5 years. Staying at his Aunt Edna's house in West Rehoboth -- the black side of town -- Edward has the whole summer to have fun and explore. First, Edward wants to learn about the mysterious man named Uncle Rufus living in the shack behind Aunt Edna's.

Follows the career of self-centered, middle-aged film director Tom Richards. As he turns colorful incidents from his life into glittery, cinematic fiction, his foreboding dreams become all too real.

On a bright June day in 1965, a dozen girls -- classmates at a Blue Ridge women's college -- launch a ramshackle raft on a trip down the Mississippi. Thirty-five years later, four of the "girls" reunite to cruise the river again on a luxury steamboat and rediscover themselves.

Brings back the heady days of the late 1960's in a touching journey of the heart.