While sitting through a fearsome thunderstorm that has put the lights out, Thomas hears a story from Grandfather's boyhood, when Grandfather was afraid of thunderstorms.
Two unpleasant American tourists in Mexico find their attitudes greatly changed when their car breaks down and they are forced to spend the night in the crumbling hacienda of a one-hundred-and-two-year-old "queen.".
Weary of the war, a Union lieutenant recalls his life with his twin brother on their family's Virginia plantation and the events that led them to fight on different sides in the Civil War.
Though they still listen to baseball and go fishing, Thomas and his grandfather find life in their small house in Florida changed when Great-aunt Linzy comes to stay.
In the attempt to redefine her family's relationship after her parents' divorce, Jimmie realizes there are no families without interpersonal conflicts.
Fifteen-year-old Cormac, longing to fulfill his artistic inclinations, leaves his family farm in ninth-century Ireland and joins a monastery, where he creates an illuminated manuscript to be treasured by generations to come.
