"Basil Ransom, an attractive young Mississippi lawyer, is on a visit to his cousin Olive, a wealthy feminist, in Boston when he accompanies her to a meeting on the subject of women's emancipation. One of the speakers is Verena Tarrant, and although he disapproves of all she claims to stand for, Basil is immediately captivated by her and sets about 'reforming' her with his traditional views. But Olive has already made Verena her protégée, and soon...

Boston radio talk-show host Monica Grant has been highly critical of the city's police department. Michael is a police officer, by turn infuriatingly chauvinistic and irresistibly attractive. She's looking for a man who cannot be intimidated; he's looking for a soft, feminine female.

The interwoven lives of three women. Leila is a feminist writer who advises women on problems, but has problems of her own with an unfaithful husband. Becky, about whom Leila is writing a book, is a budding TV anchor woman who is in jail for conspiring to kill her husband. Mary, Leila's cleaning woman, has been left homeless by a divorce.

"Irish domestic worker Norah King's decision to ask her wealthy employer, Caroline Parker, for an elegant red coat that the Beacon Hill matriarch has marked for donation ignites a series of events that neither woman could have fathomed. The unlikely exchange will impact their respective daughters and families for generations to come, from the coat's original owner, marriage-minded collegian Cordelia Parker, to the determined and spirited King sisters...

Performing research for her latest article on the East Coast's most eligible bachelors, magazine writer Nia Phillips finds a struggle in Daniel Strahan, a professional coach who hates the media as much as Nia despises basketball.