As Christmas approaches, Clem and his five-year-old son, Jakey, move to be closer to Clem’s mother, Dossie, in Cornwall. Clem realizes that he has to be strong to keep his family together. Forming a slightly unconventional family setup with Dossie, Jakey, and Clem are the jovial nuns of the local convent. But when an unexpected event threatens to destroy the nuns’ way of life, will everyone still be together next Christmas? Beloved novelist Marcia Willett’s gentle and compassionate holiday tale will touch the hearts of parents and grandparents everywhere.

Roly Carradine has found refuge in Cornwall, in the mellow stone house of his childhood. A broken marriage made Roly remove himself from his busy London life, and here in Cornwall he welcomes Kate, also seeking refuge from the grief of losing her husband, and young Daisy Quin, a dancer recovering from a back injury. Roly’s son Nat, a garden designer with his own secret burden to bear, lives not far away and is plagued by the unsympathetic visits of his mother Monica, Roly’s ex-wife. Roly, Kate, Daisy, and Nat all try to find resolution in the beauty and peace of the Cornish countryside.

Can you ever escape your family ties?

Siblings Billa and Ed share their beautiful, grand childhood home in rural Cornwall. Their lives are uncomplicated. With family and friends nearby and their free and easy living arrangements, they are as content as can be.

But when postcards start arriving from a sinister figure they thought was well and truly in their pasts, old memories are stirred. Why is he contacting them now? And what has he been hiding all these years?

Fresh out of university and right on the precipice of adulthood, El is trying her best to figure out what it is she really wants from life. This is complicated by the fact that she is also dealing with the loss of her father, Martin. After his sudden death, El inherits and moves into his home just outside Tavistock, in the Devon countryside. Her stepbrother and sort-of friend, Will, comes to help her through her grief and to go through her father’s belongings. As El spends time in her father’s home, she uncovers more about his life, and the secrets he had been keeping from her and her family. This includes mysterious messages on his phone from someone El suspects may have been more than just a friendly acquaintance. Julia is also mourning Martin, but for many reasons, they thought it best to keep their relationship a secret. So she must now grieve entirely on her own. All she has to remember of her love are the text messages they sent to each other in their secret code, and the memories of their time spent at The Garden House: a beautiful community garden and teashop nearby. It is where they met, fell in love, and where their secret affair will inevitably be uncovered one day. As El and Will begin to decipher the messages on Martin’s phone, and piece together her father’s long-buried secrets, they are brought closer and closer to each other, to Julia, and to a truth that is difficult for all to face.

The Keep–that beautiful, ancient family home where the Chadwick family has lived for generations–is still a haven from the heartbreaks and storms of life. Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend, Henrietta, home to meet his extended family–and also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, and who has now reappeared and seems to want forgiveness.

Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness–although his father, Hal, now married to his cousin and childhood sweetheart, feels a lingering guilt about Marie and wants them all to be friends. And Henrietta, still vulnerable from the breakup of her own parents’ marriage, is not sure whether she can move on.

Three generations, one heartbreaking secret–and the past about to be uncovered …

Jess Penhaligon is on her way to London to receive an award for her botanical painting. Hosting her will be Kate, who gladly welcomes her into her home. Jess’ own family fell apart several years ago, so she is grateful for Kate’s friendliness–and for her close unit of extended family and friends, who embrace Jess just as warmly.

As the group begins reminiscing about their pasts and sharing their stories with Jess, it becomes apparent that her family history may be linked with theirs. Long-buried secrets from past generations are being uncovered, but at what cost have they been kept hidden?

Matt’s mother kept all his childhood memories in a small box, amongst the many photos of Matt as a child. But something about those photos has always puzzled Matt. Is that really him? Why does he not remember those clothes and toys? And where, in the photos, is his sister Imogen?

Imogen, meanwhile, is living with her husband and their baby in a rented cottage. Ever since her childhood she has loved the Summer House, a charming folly in the grounds of a beautiful and ancient house on Exmoor, and now they have the chance of buying it. But the Summer House provides the key to the strange and tragic secret which has affected Matt’s whole life.

Pregnant and grieving, twenty-something Tiggy arrives at the remote house of her friend Julia in the middle of a snowstorm. All alone, having lost her mate in a tragic accident, Tiggy finds refuge with Julia’s warm and chaotic family. Nurtured and loved at last, Tiggy begins to live again as she eagerly awaits the birth of her son. But nearly thirty years later, when her son is about to become a father himself, the next generation discovers that there are some secrets of the past that still live on.