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 perfectuntil, just minutes before midnight, the room begins to sway. Glass shatters. And as the lights go out, people begin to scream.In the earthquakes aftermath, the lives of four strangers will converge. Sarah Sloane, the beautiful wife of a financial whiz, watches her perfect world fall to pieces. Grammy-winning singer Melanie Free, the events headliner, comes to a turning point in her life and career. Photographer Everett Carson, a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties, finds new purpose amid the carnageand Sister Maggie Kent, a nun who normally works in jeans and high-tops with the homeless, searches through the rubbleand knows instantly that there is much work to be done.As the city staggers back to life, a chain reaction of extraordinary events will touch each of the survivors. 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 lifeand upends her own in the process. But as a year passes, and the anniversary of the earthquake approaches, more surprises are in storeas each discovers the unexpected gifts in a tragedys wakeand the amazing grace of new beginnings.Throughout these enthralling pages, Danielle Steel creates a stunning array of contrastsfrom 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.From the Hardcover edition.