For generations, elite young men have attended St. Oswald's School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric classics teacher who has been a revered fixture for more than 30 years. But this year, things are different. Suits, paperwork, and Information Technology rule the world, and Straitley is reluctantly contemplating retirement.

New friends Sam, Margaret and Diana are thrilled to be getting out of the city for a girls’ weekend - they’ve bonded over their messy divorces, and every mile on the odometer feels like another step towards putting their exes in the past. But when car trouble halfway into their trip strands them in the most unlikely of mountain towns, they come face-to-face with the hurts and betrayals they were so desperate to leave behind. When Diana doesn't return home after a night out, Sam and Margaret's search for her reveals just how little they know about their friend.

Never trust anyone. Never trust yourself. Rachel has made poor decisions in the past, but she has always tried her best for her daughter. When Vivian needed a fresh start, Rachel didn't hesitate to move them far from London. She just wishes she could shake the nagging doubt that Vivian is hiding something. Vivian isn't like other teenagers. On the surface she seems the same as her friends, but she knows she is different. When enigmatic Alex takes an interest in her, Vivian's cool demeanour hides an intensity of feeling she has never known before. His touch sets her skin on fire.

Elisa Wright is a mom and wife, living a nice, quiet life in a nice, quiet town. She’s also convinced her brother-in-law is a murderer. Josh has one dead wife and one missing fiancée, and though he grieved for them he starts dating someone new. Elisa fears for that woman’s safety, and she desperately wants to know what happened to her friend, Josh’s missing fiancée.

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal - she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault - and almost absorbs the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death. Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple - until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their eight-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist.

True-crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace. As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls - haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside.

When Chloe Davis was 21, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients.

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half brother, Ben, didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up - to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? - he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has.

When Rachel moves into a new apartment with her young daughter, Lily, it’s with a huge sense of relief. After escaping an abusive marriage, this perfect downtown fourth-floor rental, within minutes from the lake, feels like the new beginning the two of them deserve. But soon handwritten letters begin to arrive for someone called Annie. Alex says she was just the tenant who lived there before, who moved out one day without a word. Tentatively Rachel opens the first letter, intending to return it to the sender. 

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Since Gran died a few months ago, 25-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter - she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed.

Philomena McCarthy is a young, ambitious police office with the elite Metropolitan Police in London. When she responds to a domestic-violence call, she finds the victim, Tempe Brown, trying to protect her abuser, a married man named Darren Goodall, a decorated Scotland Yard detective afraid of no one. As Philomena pursues the case against him, she not only encounters resistance from her police force colleagues but also becomes dangerously entangled with the victim - who is not at all whom she appears to be - much to the increasing endangerment of herself and Henry, her fiancée.

Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they form a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible - Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen - and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle. 

Helen’s idyllic life - handsome architect husband, gorgeous Victorian house, and cherished baby on the way - begins to change the day she attends her first prenatal class. There, she meets Rachel, an unpredictable single mother-to-be who doesn’t seem very maternal: She smokes, drinks, and professes little interest in parenthood. Still, Helen is drawn to her. Maybe Rachel just needs a friend. And to be honest, Helen’s a bit lonely herself. At least Rachel is fun to be with. She makes Helen laugh, invites her confidences, and distracts her from her fears.

Detective Clements knows that people disappear all the time - far too frequently. Most run away from things, some run toward and others are taken but find their way back. A sad few never return. These two women are from very different worlds. Their disappearances are unlikely to be connected. And yet, at a gut level, the detective believes they might be.

She bursts into my life like a storm, and nothing is the same again. One by one, I watch as my friends fall under her spell. Only I see that her smiles don’t reach her cold, furious eyes. And when I’m accused of things I didn’t do, when my home is vandalized, I know she’s behind it. But she only lets her mask slip when no one is looking, so if I say anything, I’ll look crazy. So when the baby shower comes around, I’m sitting on a velvet sofa in a posh hotel room, surrounded by balloons. But that afternoon, I finally learn the unbelievable truth. There is no baby....