In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.

Henry Latham and town Mayor Colton continue their misadventures in Smalltown, America. This time, twelve-year-old David Latham is testifying at the trial of his father, Henry, who is accused of burning down the McCluskey bridge.

Penelope Keeling, a sixty-four-year-old daughter of a famous artist, reflects on her life, and the fate and choices that defined it, when she arrives in the Mediterranean to stay with her headstrong daughter. Shifting through time, and falling into place like the pieces of a jigsaw, the truth of Penelope's rich, heartbreaking and surprising life unfolds.

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

All Stella wants is take over her small, family run restaurant in the US, and marry her long-term boyfriend. But when everything she thought was certain falls apart, and her best friend has an opening for a chef in a new London restaurant, can this beautiful city and a persistent food critic who has as much to gain from her success as she does, change Stella’s long held life perspectives?

After New York City firefighter Terry Lynch is unable to receive any compensation for an injury incurred during the off-duty rescue of a young girl, he grows suicidal. Furious, his brother Jimmy attempts to have Mayor Tyler intervene, but the corrupt politician instead denounces Terry as a drunk. Determined to get justice, Jimmy begins a graffiti campaign of embarrassing slogans mocking the mayor, which soon captivates the city.

When a New England Christmas decorating competition searches for the town with the most Christmas spirit, the Mayors of East and West Riverton go all out to get their towns to the top of the holiday heap.

Alice, a young and talented sous chef at NY's top restaurant, receives an invitation to judge a food competition for a prestigious annual fundraiser.

In 1923, Gregory Vance, a widower with two children, is a former scholar who has turned from book to bottle. He works, slightly, as a night-watchman, and his children, who know him for what he is and what he isn't, are his only admirers. Then, it is discovered that he is the only registered voter in a key precinct and the politicians, from both parties, arrive in droves bearing inducements. What he does about this situation, and the relatives who want to take his children away from him make up the story.

The residents of a small Vermont town don't know what hit them when a beleaguered Hollywood film crew brings a chaotic shoot to their quaint village.

British artist Colin Ware discovers that his fiancée, Vera, is going to marry another man. Distraught and despondent, he gets on a plane for America and ends up in the tiny town of Hope in New England. At first, Colin is depressed, but he soon finds more than a shoulder to cry on when his innkeepers introduce him to Mandy, a beautiful nurse. All's going well and Colin has almost forgotten his old flame until Vera shows up with a surprise of her own.

Will a mysterious stranger's past wreak havoc on a quiet Amish community after they've opened their doors -- and hearts -- to him and his son?