Gin has been satisfied moving from city to city, never putting down roots or making commitments. But when engine trouble temporarily strandsher daughter Raine in the small town of Banister Falls, Wisconsin, Gin promises her daughter they will stay put until Raine graduates from high school in the spring. Some unexpcted news and a blossoming relationship with local firefighter Dan Moretti make Gin want to leave town, but she and Dan must work together...

When a spring thaw disinters the body of a young woman who's been missing for over a year, Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport doesn't have much to go on except the victim's rumored connection with an unnamed man, who may be an artist and also, perhaps, a priest. But then the deserted property where her body was discovered turns out to be a killing field full of other young blondes last seen in the company of a man with a nasty habit of superimposing...

After years of looking for Mr. Right, Charlotte 'Charlie' Cantilini finally finds the man of her dreams, Kevin Fields, only to discover that his mother, Viola, is the woman of her most unpleasant nightmares. Viola is a recently fired news anchor who is afraid she will lose her son the way she has just lost her career, Viola becomes determines to scare off her son's new fiancé by becoming the world's worst mother-in-law.