Thirty-eight-year-old widow Anne Marie Roche, the owner of a successful Seattle bookstore, creates a list of twenty wishes, and, while acting upon her wishes, encounters an eight-year-old girl named Ellen who helps her complete her list--with unexpected results.

In the halls of Newport Academy, a unique private school that has attracted generations of rebels, outcasts, and visionaries, a poignant and unforgettable lesson in the eternal truths of sisterhood is about to begin for Maggie Shaw, her fourteen-year-old daughter Beck, and her sixteen-year-old son Travis.

"'Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that . . . in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.' Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year's Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one....

Private detective Jackson Brodie uncovers some startling connections between three separate cases he is investigating.