A seaside holiday at Shell Cottage in Devon has always been the perfect escape for the Tarrant family. But this year everything has changed. Following her husband's recent death, Olivia is struggling to pick up the pieces. Harriet's looking forward to a break with her lovely husband, Robert, and teenage daughter, Molly. But unknown to Harriet, Robert is hiding a secret - and so, for that matter, is Molly....

How do you say 'I love you' in Italian? Anna's knows the father she's never met is Italian. Now she's baking focaccia and learning the language, determined to go and find him. After Catherine's husband walked out on her, and she's trying to pick up the pieces of her life. But she discovers his deception runs even deeper than infidelity. As their Italian evening class gets underway, friendships form and love affairs blossom; it's going to be a year that they will never forget.

On moving to Brighton, Georgie finds throwing herself into the city's delights fun and exciting, but before she knows it, she's sliding into all kinds of trouble. Charlotte is in the city for a new start, hoping to keep her head down. A terrible revelation sent Rosa running from London, but could her passion for food lead her to more interesting places? As the three tenants find each other, it's as if a whole new chapter of their lives has begun....

Rachel and Becca are stepsisters living far apart, with little in common. Rachel is the successful one: happily married with three children and a big house. Becca, meanwhile, lurches from one dead-end job to another and has given up on love. The two of them have lost touch, but when Rachel doesn't come home one night, Becca is called in to help. As Becca begins to untangle Rachel's secrets, she is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths.

Maddie’s getting it from all sides. Her bitchy new boss at the radio station humiliates her live on air about her figure, her glamour-puss mum keeps dropping not-so-subtle hints that Maddie should lose weight and her kids are embarrassed to be seen with her after the disastrous Mums’ race at their school sports day. Something’s got to change. Maddie joins the local weight-watching group expecting more humiliation but instead finds two unlikely allies: bitter divorcee Lauren and shy Jess, the beautician.

Polly has always been the high-flier of the family, with the glamorous lifestyle to match.… Clare is a single mum with two children, struggling to make ends meet in a ramshackle cottage. The two sisters are poles apart and barely on speaking terms. But then Polly’s fortunes change unexpectedly. Left penniless and with nowhere else to go, she’s forced back to the village where she and Clare grew up, and the sisters find themselves living together for the first time in years. With an old flame reappearing for Polly, a blossoming new career for Clare and a long-buried family secret in the mix, sparks are sure to fly.

It's New Year's Eve, and at a house party, three women bond over dodgy cocktails and fortune cookies, and vow to make this year their best one yet. But as the months unfold, Gemma, Saffron, and Caitlin find themselves tested to their limits. Under pressure, they are each forced to rethink their lives. But dare they take a chance on something new?

Imogen and her friends Meredith and Nicola have had their fill of budget holidays. So when Meredith wins a VIP holiday at Barcelona's hippest new hotel, they plan to sip champagne with the jet set and party. But when the worst crisis of her working life erupts, Imogen has to juggle her BlackBerry with a Manhattan. Between a robbery and an encounter on a nudist beach, the friends stumble from one disaster to the next.

Sadie is a single mum, nursing a broken heart. Her best friend from childhood, Cat, is burned out from working long hours as a chef in Paris. In need of a change, they decide to invest in their dream - running their own handmade biscuit shop in gorgeous Castle Court, a three-storey food court tucked away behind Chester's bustling streets. They soon discover that Castle Court has its own community - a little haven of delight against the stresses of the outside world. But not everyone welcomes the new business.

Evie loves running her beach café in Cornwall, but with a baby on the way she's been told to put her feet up. Helen's come to Cornwall to escape the stress of city living. She hopes a seaside life will be the answer to all her dreams. When she sees a job advertised at the café, it sounds perfect. But the two women clash, and sparks fly. Can the pair of them put aside their differences in a crisis?

It's a beautiful day in Manchester, and four friends are meeting for a birthday lunch. But then they witness a shocking accident just metres away which acts as a catalyst for each of them. For Laura, it's a wake-up call to heed the ticking of her biological clock. Sensible Jo finds herself throwing caution to the wind in a new relationship. Eve, who has been trying to ignore the worrying lump in her breast, feels helpless and out of control. And happy-go-lucky India is drawn to one of the victims of the accident, causing long-buried secrets to rise to the surface.

Jojo Harvey is a literary agent whose star is on the rise. In love with both her married boss and her burgeoning career, not much distracts her. Until she finds herself representing two women who used to be best friends. Used to be....

When Frankie stumbles upon an unopened letter from her late mother, she’s delighted to have one last message from her...until she reads the contents and discovers the truth about her birth. Brimming with questions, she travels to York to seek further answers from the Mortimer family, but her appearance sends shock waves through them all. Meanwhile, Robyn Mortimer has problems of her own. Her husband, John, has become distant, and a chance remark from a friend leads Robyn to wonder exactly what he’s not been saying. Dare she find out more? 

Abby Rogers has been on health kicks before - they involve eating one blueberry muffin for breakfast instead of two. When Abby is encouraged to join her sporty best friend's running club - by none other than its gorgeous new captain - she finds a mysterious compulsion to exercise. Then her colleague, Heidi, turns up at work and makes a devastating announcement, one that will change her life - and Abby's - forever.

Gina is starting her life again, after a difficult few years she'd rather forget. But the belongings she's treasured for so long just don't seem to fit who she is now. So Gina makes a resolution. She'll keep just a hundred items - the rest can go. But that means coming to terms with her past and learning to embrace the future, whatever it might bring…