Mary Elizabeth Nelson is the oldest child in a conservative Roman Catholic family in a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. As a sophomore at Berkeley in 1983, Mary is discovered by her mother in a "compromising position" with another woman, and she is summarily disowned.<br><br>She moves to New York and works as a waitress. While auditing an Austen seminar at NYU, she falls for fellow student, Betty Anne Elliot. The two foolishly share one night of passion before Betty decides to marry and disappear from Mary's life.<br><br>That is, until twenty years later when she calls still-single, successful writer Mary out-of-the-blue. Can the romance they had that first day blossom into love and passion?

As her only daughter prepares for college, Sharon Conroy must make a difficult decision. A teacher married to a New York City lawyer, Sharon must decide if she can tell him she is a lesbian and has never had sexual feelings for him. Their suburban life has otherwise been perfect, and the world thinks of them as the perfect family. Her whole life as Mrs. Conroy has been a lie. When her daughter Mattie comes out as gay, the decision is made for her. Once the secret of her “perfect family” is out, can she finally embrace who she is and allow herself to find true love?

Suzanne Nelson was raised just outside of San Francisco. A Stanford grad and varsity runner, she heads to New York City for law school. She is gay, but has come out to no one. In New York she meets Kerry Neally, a New Yorker and fellow student. Who is straight. First in a study group and then as a pair, they find themselves become attached to one another. And have to work out that Kerry thinks she's straight. Eileen is Kerry's mother. She is a widow, and meeting Suzanne helps her leave the shell into which she placed herself after her husband died. And she comes to the attention of two men. One a widower. The other divorced. And love intevenes for her choice. With Suzanne settled into her New York life, she turns her back on her parents, who turned their backs on Suzanne's aunt Mary, a gay woman disowned by her parents and brother decades before. She, too, lives in New York and she and Eileen attempt to get Suzanne's parents to understand their daughter. Kate Nelson comes to New York to reason with her daughter. As eventually does William, her father. The story is about how the members of what becomes a large New York family deal with themselves, each other, and love.

Three couples, connected by a lesbian bar in NYC. Angela is bi, but in a long-term relationship with a man. When she rids herself of him, she's intrigued by an encounter with a lesbian couple at a wedding, who lead her to Ethel's where she meets Nicole. Nicole tends to be on the prowl, but soon she prefers to love of one woman. Angela. Angela's ex-boyfriend's sister, meanwhile, struggles with desires to be a slave to a Domme, but seeks the love of Connie as an equal. Finally, Val is a butch and Michelle a femme. A closeted femme (at least to her parents). And it almost costs her the love of a good woman.