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.

"From Joan of Arc to Queen Elizabeth I, to Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, to Sally Ride and Jennifer Aniston, history is full of women without children. Some chose to forgo reproduction in order to pursue intellectually satisfying work--a tension noted by medieval European nuns, 1970s women's liberationists, and modern professionals alike. Some refused to bring children into a world beset by famine, pollution, or climate change. For others,...

At thirty-seven, Jane Howe is pretty sure she has attained the perfect life: a well-paying job, fantastic friends, family close by (but not too close), and a Greenwich Village apartment that makes visitors drool with envy. But that's before she sees the perfect child. There he sits in his stroller, angelic and beautiful, magnetic and serene– and he makes Jane question everything she has and everything she thought she wanted.

Suddenly...

"Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan -- divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia -- is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily's eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father's love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between...

"Macey and Ben Samuelson have much to be thankful for: great friends, a beautiful-- if high-maintenance-- Victorian house on idyllic Tybee Island, and a rock-solid marriage. The only thing missing is what they want the most. After her fifth miscarriage in six years, Macey worries that the family they've always dreamed of might be out of reach. Her sister suggests adoption, but Macey and Ben aren't interested in pursuing that path... until a three-legged...

"Twenty Wishes. At thirty-eight, Anne Marie Roche is childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle's Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, she struggles to find happiness. With several of her friends, she makes a list of twenty wishes: things she always wanted to do but never did. When Anne Marie volunteers at a local school, a little girl named Ellen enters her life. It's a relationship that becomes far more...

An ex-con and a police officer decide to get married and start a family. To their dismay, they discover that they can neither have nor adopt children. Desperate, they resort to kidnapping one of the newborn quintuplets of the wealthy Arizona family. However, their attempt at living a normal life is complicated by neurotic co-workers, two fugitives, and a mysterious bounty hunter.

In the farmlands of Minnesota in the early 20th century. Mary became the wife of Jonathan Gray and took up her life in the wheat fields. They lived a quiet, placid, hard-working life working on the farm that Jonathan inherited from his parents. Jonathan's brother Aaron shares farming duties and lives in the house with them, since the house was his inheritance too. They seem to have a satisfying life, but after 7 years of marriage, Jonathan and Mary...

Ruth Cooperman arrives in beautiful beachside Provincetown for her retirement, renting the perfect waterfront cottage while she searches for her forever home. After years of hard work and making peace with life's disappointments, Ruth is looking forward to a carefree summer of solitude. But when she finds a baby girl abandoned on her doorstep, Ruth turns to her new neighbors for help and is drawn into the drama of the close-knit community. The appearance...

Fourteen year old Gertie is singlehandedly raising her little sister, Izzie. Orphaned after their mother's death, the two girls are secretly living on their own, attempting to stay under the radar so they can remain together. Meanwhile Gertie's new teacher, Mrs. Freeman, and her husband struggle with their inability to have a child. Both Gertie and Mrs. Freeman have fallen from faith, but can these two "broken" families find renewed devotion by coming...