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On a warm May night in San Francisco the RitzCarlton ballroom shimmers with crystal and silver as a glittering celebritystudded crowd gathers for a charity auction.

The evening is perfect until just minutes before midnight the room begins to sway.

Glass shatters.

And as the lights go out people begin to scream.

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In the earthquakes aftermath the lives of four strangers will converge.

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Sarah Sloane the beautiful wife of a financial star watches her perfect world fall to pieces.

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Grammywinning singer Melanie Free the events headliner comes to a turning point in her career.

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Photographer Everett Carson a former war correspondent whose personal demons have demoted him to covering society parties finds new purpose amid the carnage.

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and Sister Maggie Kent a nun who does her best work in jeans and hightops searches through the rubble and knows instantly that there is much work to be done.

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As the city staggers back to life a chain reaction of extraordinary events will touch each of the survivors.

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For Sarah it begins with the discovery of a terrible 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 and upends her own in the process.

But as a year passes and the anniversary of the earthquake approaches more surprises are in store as each discovers the unexpected gifts in a tragedys wake.

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and the amazing grace of new beginnings.

Throughout these enthralling pages Danielle Steel creates a stunning array of contrasts from the dazzle of a society benefit to the chaos of a