Chronicles the joys and troubles of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies and marry in nineteenth-century New England.

Fourteen-year-old Lia is excited to have some of her friends invited to mom's fortieth birthday part in a secret location, but when an old flame is on the guest list his presence threatens her relationship with her boyfriend Squidge.

Mayor Emily Warwick is plagued by the challenges of a re-election campaign, the demands of her elderly mother, her sister's upcoming marriage to a man her mother does not like, the death of her husband, and the guilt of giving her child up for adoption.

Portrays a woman who in middle-age finally takes charge of her own destiny.

Nine-year-old Alice must write about herself for an assignment in her London school, and in doing so, she sorts out her feelings about her somewhat prickly single mother, the father she has never met, her flamboyant paternal grandmother, and the rest of her sometimes confusing life.