A collection of stories tell of two sisters: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother's happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton returns to visit her siblings...

Fifty-year-old artist's model Helen Knightly, worn down by years of dealing with her depressed and needy mother, gives in to the temptation to smother the now old and senile Clair and spends the next twenty-four hours feeling both liberated by what she has done, and tormented by her memories of the past and expectations for the future.

Embarking on an ill-conceived Alaskan cruise, septuagenarian Harriet reunites with her estranged daughter and confronts pivotal events from her life surrounding the true character of her husband, who died two years earlier.

"Episodes from the young life of Annie John, aged 10 to 17, as she grows up on the Caribbean island of Antigua. This is a magical coming-of-age tale, ripe with the special ambience of its tropical setting and sustained by Annie's far from naive awareness of the world around her. Death, illness, and poverty intrude on the narrator's perceptive sensilibity from time to time, but even these experiences instruct her and expand her understanding of life...

After Senator Richard Woodruff's extramarital affair makes the headlines, his wife, Sylvie, and daughters, Lizzie and Diana, are caught in the national spotlight and begin to reconsider the choices that they have made in life and who they believe they were meant to become.

"When Katy's mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn't just Katy's mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy's father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking...

As the awkward one, Courtney Watson may not be as together as her sisters, but she excels at one thing: keeping secrets, including her white-hot affair with a sexy music producer. Planning Mom's wedding exposes her startling hidden life, changing her family's view of her--and how she views herself--forever. When Sienna's boyfriend proposes--in front of her mom and sisters, for crying out loud--he takes her by surprise. She already has two broken engagements...

After the sudden death of her husband, 70-year-old Henrietta Olyphant is broke and unmoored. Her daughter Oona is mid-divorce. Meanwhile, Oona's teenager Lydia, away at boarding school, faces accusations involving a viral nude photo. In the wake of the upheaval, these tough, independent women find themselves under one roof. Together the three generations sift through the mess, and emerge renewed.

"In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan's debut novel--now widely regarded as a modern classic--examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between these four women and their American-born daughters."--Publisher's description....

Cathy discovers that she has the power to revenge those childhood years locked in an attic with her brother and sister.