I take a sip of coffee as I plan my day. My surgeon husband, Cole, slept at work last night, so I had to get the kids ready on my own, again. I can’t complain, though, I’ve loved him ever since we met, long before he became a famous surgeon and the papers started calling him the pride of the hospital. Our latest family photo hangs on the kitchen wall and I remember that day so clearly. Cole screamed at me over nothing, then apologised saying he was stressed at work. My heart pounded with fear, but I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of my children.

I thought my first husband died ten years ago. But now he’s back... Opening the front door, I’m stunned to see a familiar face. I never thought I’d see Freddie’s deep brown eyes and crooked smile again. But how is this possible when he died ten years ago…? It took years to move on, but finally my life is almost perfect.

Caroline twitches aside her curtains to see the new family moving in. A mother – beautifully dressed in expensive clothes – and two young children. Where is her husband, she wonders? And why are they moving in to the smallest house on the street? They really don’t seem the type. But Caroline believes it’s important to be welcoming. It’s important to know everything that’s happening on West Street.

I used to enjoy my job. I was good at it and felt fulfilled. I also used to enjoy spending time with the people I worked with. They say you spend more time with your work colleagues than you do with your family members, but that was fine by me because I made two very good friends at the office. I also allowed myself to get a little too close to my boss, but I soon realized that was a mistake. Unfortunately, it was too late by then, and as my personal and professional lives quickly blurred into one, that was when everything changed.

Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering her husband. She had an alibi and no known motive, yet Talia’s unwavering protestations of innocence have always been ignored. Then one day in the visiting area, she sees a recognizable stranger she’s certain is her husband. It turns out the man she’s been convicted of killing may not be dead after all. But as the days tick away toward Talia’s execution, what will it take for her to be believed?

Emily: It’s been a long time since my best friend Ava stopped speaking to me. But I knew I’d find a way back in. When I hear that her daughter won’t sleep at home because of a burglary on the street, I offer to swap houses for a while. Ava is so grateful. And now I’m staying in her family home, I finally understand why she’s been avoiding me… Ava isn’t as perfect as she makes out. She’s been hiding a big secret that could ruin her idyllic life. Only now, I know all about it…

Wife: I couldn’t be prouder of my charming husband and quiet and kind son. I’ve poured everything into my little family, so I choose to ignore my husband’s late-night phone calls and wandering eye. I won’t let anything ruin my perfect life…

Charlie takes my breath away from the moment we meet, when he is dropping his adorable little girls off at the school gates at the same time as I’m waving goodbye to my son. Being a single mother has been hard. So when his gorgeous green-blue eyes hold mine and his lips curve into a smile I wonder if this is my chance to find happiness and escape the secrets in my past.

Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client yet: Melody Wells. Melody paints a picture of serenity and empowerment in the lavender haze of her visualization workshops—however, the one thing she can’t manifest are the pages her publisher is demanding for her new motivational book. Enter Anne.

After my beautiful daughter Annabelle died in a tragic accident, I thought I would never recover. With my world in pieces, my husband Matthew did what he could to support me and our son, Noah. He hired a young woman, Reka, to help us at home, to be the mother for Noah that I couldn’t be. She cares for him like he’s her own.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

ME: Staring down at the sweet baby in my arms, I feel panic instead of love. Because this isn’t the child I gave birth to. My husband whispers to the midwife. They all think I’m going crazy. But the tiny boy in my arms is crying again. I’m certain: he knows I’m not his mummy. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get my son back.

Riley Bishop is a single mother, working at home as a graphic designer to provide for her two children, Sadie and Oliver. But something is very wrong. Riley starts forgetting things—like appointments, where she put her keys, and where she parked her car. And then she thinks she sees her deceased ex-husband while out shopping. But as Riley begins to question her own sanity, her twelve-year-old Sadie goes missing. Soon Riley finds it harder and harder to know what is truth and what are lies as she is forced to question her own reality while she searches for her daughter.

Emma is so happy to have moved from the city to her husband’s small hometown. James was strangely reluctant at first – but she convinced him their little cottage is the perfect place to settle down. The perfect place to give their six-year-old son a new life. But then a woman at the school gates asks Emma if she is really married to ‘that man’. ‘Which man?’ Emma asks. The woman replies…

Helen Appleby just wants a quiet life. Recently released from prison for the manslaughter of her partner, she's trying to forget her past mistakes—all of them—to rebuild her life and move on. When she decides to open a bookshop, she’s certain this is the perfect new start. Here, amongst the quiet shelves of her shop and between the covers of her books, she can hide away from the real world and begin again. But the past can never stay hidden…

‘Just rest, Frankie. I’ll take care of you.’ I feel my baby kick as my nanny fluffs my pillows and lays me down. She gives me a soothing smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She knows I’m afraid of her… When I shake our nanny Jasmine’s hand for the first time and catch her perfect smile, I can’t ignore the feeling that we’ve met before. But I tell myself it’s nothing. I desperately need help around the house. Since I got pregnant, I burst into tears over the smallest things and my mind is a haze. I can barely look after my toddler Olivia. Jasmine is a godsend–isn’t she?

Fiona Fisher lives a quiet and contented existence. A former nurse who married Jason, the doctor of her dreams, she is now a mother to his two daughters and living in the sort of cosy village home she’d always wished for.

With trembling hands, Meg knocks on the door of the large manor house. Behind her, the view down to the river is spectacular. She’s here to be the nanny to two young children. It’s not the job Meg is anxious about, though. It’s the house itself that scares her, and the secrets lurking inside. Not only that, but will her new employer recognise her? The door opens. A beautiful, smiling woman greets her and ushers her inside.

In 2007, Cora, Faye, Anna and Julia returned home from a week together in Ibiza with secrets to keep. When they agreed never to contact each other again, all traces of their holiday were erased. Or so they thought. Now, almost seventeen years have passed since that trip and Anna's sister Kim is still picking up the pieces after Anna abruptly abandoned her life to start over in London, the occasional Christmas card her only contact ever since.

Verity and Linden Lockwood vowed to spend the rest of their lives together, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do they part. Five years later they've kept their promise to never let their love die, to never slip into becoming one of those couples....But a year after Linden is brutally and inexplicably murdered in their picture-perfect home, Verity's world shatters again. They're not the golden couple she thought they were. Linden betrayed her: he had been having an affair.

Eliza has everything I’ve ever wanted. Three perfect children. A doting husband. A dream home. But I know a secret that could destroy it all. When Eliza Watts hires me as her assistant, I can’t believe my luck. I steady my nerves as she glances approvingly at my glittering CV. I need this job more than anything. But she must never know why. It’s funny she doesn’t recognize me, because we’ve met before. And ever since we crossed paths, I’ve wanted nothing but to be close to her and her flawless family.

It’s been ten years since Alison’s perfect world fell apart. Ten years since her son Sam disappeared while on a family holiday. Lost at sea, they said, his body never found. And even though her brother and sister were supposedly looking after the kids, Alison will always blame herself. Caught in a spiralling web of all-consuming grief where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, Alison refuses to let go. So when her ex-husband seeks to have Sam officially pronounced dead, Alison embarks upon a desperate and harrowing quest to discover what really happened that day on the beach.

Her perfect home. Her perfect man. How wrong can she be? After a bitter divorce, criminal solicitor Laila moves to idyllic Violet Lane where she quickly falls for Max—her charming, piano-playing neighbor. They begin a wildly passionate affair and Laila feels she is really starting to live again. But the tranquility of this close-knit community is shattered when Jackie, a young mother from across the street, goes missing. Her husband is the chief suspect and Laila agrees to act as his lawyer.

My heart drops as I take in Jemma’s tear-streaked face. Has my worst nightmare come true? My daughter is my whole world, but I’ve been keeping a secret from her. And from the hurt in her eyes, I think she’s found out....

Jane Whitaker and Ivy Chapman have been best friends for twenty years - ever since their sons Cal and Brad attended the same preschool. But their close bond is severely tested when their now adult sons go skiing together in Wyoming and only one returns. Where is Cal Whitaker and why didn’t Brad Chapman report him missing? With growing fears for Cal's safety, his family begins to suspect Brad knows a lot more than he's saying. Friendship turns to suspicion and then to open hostility when Cal's sister Emerson posts an online appeal that ignites a vicious crusade against Brad.

Sabine and Rory Sugar seem like a perfectly respectable family to their new neighbours. They’re popular and friendly, their two teenage boys quiet and courteous. But when Rory starts staying late at work, and Sabine thinks she sees her son, Leo, in the woods apparently fighting with a girl, their seemingly perfect lives start to fall apart. And when the girl is reported missing and the police turn up asking awkward questions, Sabine must decide whether to lie to protect her son, or risk Leo being arrested on suspicion of abduction.

Journalist Zoe Kincade arrives in the rundown seaside town of Sunshine Sands to report on this year's talent show. The motionless Ferris wheel blurs into the dark sea beyond and polystyrene chip trays bounce along the pavement. She checks into the Forget-Me-Not hotel, a faded Edwardian terrace that has seen better days, the place her beautiful older sister Jane stayed the night she disappeared. Zoe has spent forty years trying to block out the pain. The aftermath of that night destroyed her chance of a happy marriage and living in any kind of peace.

Caroline twitches aside her curtains to see the new family moving in. A mother – beautifully dressed in expensive clothes – and two young children. Where is her husband, she wonders? And why are they moving in to the smallest house on the street? They really don’t seem the type. But Caroline believes it’s important to be welcoming. It’s important to know everything that’s happening on West Street.

I blink awake to the sound of whispering, and look around. Automatically, I do a count. And then I am upright, my heart racing. I count again. “Girls,” I say, trying to sound calm. “Did you see Evie?” It was meant to be a celebration. A team sleepover in the school gymnasium: movies, pizza, hot chocolate. I walk among the girls, checking they’re ok. They collect in groups and giggle, play truth or dare.

At thirty-six, Katie Cope's life hasn't turned out the way she planned. She had big dreams of becoming an investigative journalist, but then her best friend from college disappeared. Claire was driving home for Thanksgiving and never made it. Her abandoned car was found at a trailhead in the Rockies, but she was never seen again. Now Katie's husband Howard has sold his San Diego business for more money than they ever dreamed. She's found a beautiful new housing development in the breathtaking wilderness of the Colorado mountains. It's just the fresh start we need, she tells him.