On the beaches of Kenya they’re known as "Sugar Mamas" —European women who seek out African boys selling love to earn a living. Teresa, a 50-year-old Austrian and mother of a daughter entering puberty, travels to this vacation paradise, moving from beach to beach.

Shortly after David Abbott moves into his new San Francisco digs, he has an unwelcome visitor on his hands: winsome Elizabeth Martinson, who asserts that the apartment is hers -- and promptly vanishes. When she starts appearing and disappearing at will, David thinks she's a ghost, while Elizabeth is convinced she's alive.

In a hospital, ten soldiers are being treated for a mysterious sleeping sickness. In a story in which dreams can be experienced by others, and in which goddesses can sit casually with mortals, a nurse learns the reason why the patients will never be cured, and forms a telepathic bond with one of them.

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

When the executives at Heartstrings Press wants to drop Michael Rothchild’s next romance book, junior editor, Dori Shephard, argues her way into working as the lead editor. But Dori’s dream job becomes her nightmare as she realizes Michael isn’t everything she imagined. Dori breaks the news to Michael that the executives think he’s an ill-mannered, washed up novelist and want to terminate his contract. Not wanting to be dropped from Heartstrings Press, Michael agrees to work with Dori for 30 days. While Dori wrestles with Michael’s languorous behavior she’s also in the midst of planning her wedding to her fiancé, Philip. However, things go awry for Dori when work becomes an obstacle in her relationship. Dori must learn what true love really means before it’s too late.

When a 12 year old girl learns that her mother is marrying a man she hates, the little runs away from home by buying a ticket for Marrakech, where she will seek her father.

As Chicago gears up for its annual Thanksgiving Day parade, Emily Jones, an eager parade coordinator is shocked when Henry Williams, a wealthy new development consultant, is brought in to analyze the parade's finances.