Shem Creek: Meet Linda Breland, single parent of two teenage daughters. Linda's personal life? Well, between the married men, the cold New Jersey winters, her pinched wallet and her ex-husband who marries a beautiful, successful woman ten years younger than she, let's just say, Linda has seen enough to fill a thousand pages.

Pawleys Island: Huey Valentine and his great friend Abigail Thurmond are complacent in their fat and sassy lives until the stormy advent of the artist Rebecca Simms. Rebecca has been catapulted from her home, her marriage, and her children. She has escaped to Pawleys Island to hide herself from herself. But after Miss Olivia pries Rebecca's secrets from her, Huey and especially Abigail are challenged to reenter.