Reta's happy life is torn apart when her eldest daughter drops out of school to sit on a street corner, silent but for the sign around her neck that reads "goodness" and as Reta searches to find what drove her daughter to such a desperate statement, she learns important lessons about love and hope.

Kristina Georgia Snow's life is turned upside-down after she becomes addicted to drugs, leading her down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and life.

A fifteen-year-old Ohio girl, longing for adventure, gets her wish when she moves to Panama with her father who has been hired to work on the Panama Canal, and meets Federico, an aristocrat toiling as a digger.

Fifteen-year-old Hannah feels lonley, with wealthy parents who have little time for her, until she learns that Jack is not her biological father and she begins a desperate search for the man who is.

Thirteen year old Baby feels torn between her childhood and the adult life she lives on the streets, and when a local pimp tries to coerce Baby into prostitution, she finds herself caught in a volatile situation even her heroin-addicted father can't ignore.

Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

When sixteen-year-old Miranda's father dies, she is sent to live with her father's cousin, Count John Hardwood, who sells her to Court for profit; and as part of Queen Elizabeth's court, Miranda attempts to leverage her seamstress skills to gain her independence and reunite with Henry Raleigh, whom she has always loved.

Avery, Charlotte, and Nick Montoya are sent on a wild goose chase to look for their little dog; Katani and Kelley have discovered a passion for horses; and Katani may have to say good-bye to her favorite horse.

World War II has a profound influence upon a sixteen-year-old girl and a recluse on an isolated New England island.