When Roxanne Russell’s mother dies, her father is away on a business trip. The young military widow leaves dozens of messages for her father, but receives no response. Looking for a copy of her mother’s obituary, Roxie reads an article in the newspaper and discovers her entire life is a web of lies, secrets, and deceit.

Jennifer Chaise is proud of her life. Coming from nothing, she's used her beauty to her advantage and is swept up in a glamorous world of wealth and privilege as the mistress of a high-flying businessman. But when she walks in on a violent scene in their Las Vegas hotel room, Jennifer knows she can no longer ignore the truth about her boyfriend, and she flees. Desperate to escape the men searching for her, she invents a whole new persona - with a new look and a new name - as she hides out in a small Nevada town.

Julie Barenson's young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died - a puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now, four years later, 29-year-old Julie is far too young to have given up on love. She may be ready to risk caring for someone again. But who?

A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara's heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone - on foot.

Nicole Lord wants to be a good wife, but there's a difference between being supportive and supporting her husband, who quit his job to write a screenplay she's never seen. He won't even help take care of their son, leaving Nicole to run the house and work full-time at her Mischief Bay Pilates studio. Can she say enough is enough without losing the man she loves?

A year after the death of his wife, Christine, Dan is barely holding on. But one thing gets him through the long, lonely nights and that is his cherished dog, Anni. When she is stolen from his front yard, Dan and his daughter, Lindsay, are devastated. Meanwhile in another part of town, Andrea Keller is recovering from the heartbreak of a messy divorce. After she rescues a defenseless dog from an abusive tenant, her life changes in ways she never could have anticipated.

Cara Snow is newly divorced, stuck working for a jerky boss at a pet boutique, and dreading her soon-to-be-empty nest with only her beloved corgi for company. Worse still, her ex just got engaged. Doesn’t she deserve some romance, too? Or, at least a date for the Fur Ball. She’s always enjoyed the annual pet rescue gala, but this year her ex will be there with his fiancée. Meanwhile, Cara hasn’t met anyone — other than the irresistible dogs at the boutique’s adoption events. Cara is shocked when her wish to fall for a man as easily as she does for those mutts summons Vincent. His velour track suit, paunchy belly, and tough-guy accent don't exactly fit her childhood image of a fairy godfather. Not exactly on top of his game, he admits to being twenty-five years late.

Maggie Baxter, a practical, rule-following accountant, discovers that her husband of 17 years is cheating on her. All her meticulous life plans are crushed. When he leaves her for the other woman, Maggie and her the-world-is-my-smorgasbord chocolate lab, Kona, are left to put their lives back together. As Maggie begins to develop a Plan B for her life, she decides to be more like Kona. No, she's not going to sniff crotches and eat everything that isn't nailed down; rather she'll try to approach life with more ball-chasing abandon.

Back in college, Jane Lewis would have given anything to be like homecoming queen Connie Bryan. Instead she was just Plain Jane - overweight, frumpy, and painfully shy. That was then. Today, a lovely and confident Dr. Jane Lewis has a thriving psychotherapy practice, her own radio talk show, a beautiful old Louisiana mansion, and her affectionate, nutty dog, Olive, to keep her company. The only thing missing is someone to share her life.

Twice-divorced Dawn's only source of security and comfort, it seems, is Chuck, a pit-bull mix from the pound. So, when her boyfriend announces that he's leaving her for another woman, a despairing Dawn turns to Chuck for solace. "I should have said something sooner," Chuck confides, as he tries to console her. "Couldn't you smell her on his pants?" Dawn is stunned. It's one thing to talk to your pets, but what do you do when they start talking back?

If you lost both your spouse and your dog to cancer within weeks of each other, but you were sadder about the dog, would you tell anyone? Maybe your closest friends. Unfortunately, Jane Bailey's closest friends are on the other side of the country. That's where Jane plans to go now that she's free to leave Philadelphia, the too cold, beachless, street taco-deficient city her husband dragged her to six years ago.

When Grace Saunders vowed to take her husband for better or worse, she meant every word. She and Jamie are solid, mutually supportive, and certain of their future together. And then, on a hiking trip for their 15th anniversary, an accident leaves Jamie in a coma, unable to move or communicate. As months pass, Grace is in limbo - still married, yet utterly alone and burdened with responsibilities that threaten to sink her. Meeting Nan and Monica, unlikely friends who need Grace almost as much as she needs them, makes life bearable, if not quite happy.

Alexandra Ramsey has been rescuing strays since she was abandoned by her mother at the age of seven. Now Alex's passion is poured into Harley's Haven, the no-kill animal shelter she built from scratch in Cade's Point, Mississippi. Evan Whiting rode the crest of the wave of success as a top chef in Manhattan until 26 people were sickened by bad crab meat. He lost his restaurant, his savings, his reputation, and his wife. Evan retreats to the home he inherited in rural Mississippi to start over.

There he stood in the doorway: overweight, depressed, and nearly homeless - a pug named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was Brydie Benson's latest problem, arriving on top of her messy divorce and sudden move. Brydie needed a place to start over, so this rent-free home seemed a great idea. She just never counted on Teddy or his owner, the Germantown Retirement Village's toughest customer, Pauline Neumann.

For twenty-nine-year-old Lola Watson, life is finally looking up: she has fabulous friends, is working her dream job at a popular magazine, and has just inherited a beautiful house from her late aunt. Sure, her love life isn’t in great shape, but she’s got time, right? And so what if her new neighbors are a little too friendly (i.e., incredibly nosy)?