On a warm May night in San Francisco, the Ritz-Carlton ballroom shimmers with crystal and silver as a glittering, celebrity-studded crowd gathers for a charity dinner dance. The evening is perfect&#8211;until, just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway. Glass shatters. And as the lights go out, people begin to scream&#8230;.<br><br>In the earthquake&#8217;s aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge.&#8230; Sarah Sloane, the beautiful wife of a financial whiz, watches her perfect world fall to pieces&#8230;. Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free, the event&#8217;s headliner, comes to a turning point in her life and career&#8230;. Photographer Everett Carson, a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties, finds new purpose amid the carnage&#8230;and Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who normally works in jeans and high-tops with the homeless, searches through the rubble&#8211;and knows instantly that there is much work to be done&#8230;.<br><br>As the city staggers back to life, a chain reaction of extraordinary events will touch each of the survivors.&#8230; For Sarah, it begins with the discovery of a crime and a betrayal, then a strength she never knew she had. For Melanie, volunteering at a refugee camp will open new worlds of possibility. And Everett will be shaken by the unlikely relationship he forges with Maggie, who helps him rebuild his shattered life&#8211;and upends her own in the process. But as a year passes, and the anniversary of the earthquake approaches, more surprises are in store&#8211;as each discovers the unexpected gifts in a tragedy&#8217;s wake&#8230;and the amazing grace of new beginnings.<br><br>Throughout these enthralling pages, Danielle Steel creates a stunning array of contrasts&#8211;from the dazzle of a society benefit to the chaos of a makeshift hospital, from the pampered lives of rock stars to the quiet heroism of emergency volunteers. It is her most powerful and life-affirming novel to date.