In a small Ozark community the Matthews family live in the shadow of tragedy. Their only daughter had died in childbirth, after the man she loved had betrayed and deserted her. Young Matt had lived his life under the shadow of a curse ; the promise to kill the man who abandoned his mother. A stranger arrives in the mountains and becomes known as "the Shepherd" because of his kindness to the people of the mountains.

Allison felt like she'd stepped into a fairy tale when she married widower Burke Caldwell. But after less than a year of marriage, he's become removed and distant. His friends see Allison as little more than a trophy wife, his only daughter regards her as the enemy. With everyone so devoted to the memory of Burke's first wife, Kate, how can Allison possibly compete? Then a harrowing car crash leaves Burke badly injured. But it becomes achingly clear...

Returning to her small, intrusive Ozark Mountain community, Caroline O'Conner cares for her Alzheimer's patient mother while navigating the challenges of her doctor father's frustrations, her brazen cousin's marital disasters, her deaf dog, a moonshining relative and a troubled ex-veteran.

After Karen Sommerfield is suddenly forced to deal with the threat of cancer at the same time her company downsizes her, she returns to the rural Missouri Ozarks and her grandmother's old farm on an odyssey to find herself.