During the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, the ambitions of three men merge, conflict and collide through 40 years of social and political upheaval as internal church politics affect the progress of the cathedral and the fortunes of the protagonists.

In the town of Kingsbridge, a Gothic cathedral and the priory are at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge. Proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, as the Black Death captures the city

"The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother's husband is killed in a work accident due to negligence; a young woman fights to fund her school for impoverished children; a well-intentioned young man unexpectedly inherits a failing business; one man ruthlessly protects...

"'Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn't get fixed.' So says Pauline Green, president of the United States. A shrinking oasis in the Sahara Desert; a stolen US Army drone; an uninhabited Japanese island; and one country's secret stash of deadly chemical poisons: all these play roles in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Struggling to prevent the outbreak of a world war are a young woman intelligence officer; a spy working undercover...

Pan American Flying Clipper lands in England at the outbreak of World War II with a group of desperate passengers.

A group of eco-terrorists threaten to start an earthquake and destroy San Francisco unless the government abandons plans to create a dam. They are ignored until the earth trembles and FBI agent Judy Maddox discovers that the technology for a man-made earthquake is available. At which point a race against time gets underway.

In 1866 tragedy strikes at the exclusive Windfield School when a mysterious accident takes the life of a student. Among the student's circle of friends are Hugh Pilaster; Hugh's older cousin Edward, dissolute heir to the Pilaster banking fortune; and Micky Miranda, the handsome son of a brutal South American oligarchy. The death and its aftermath begin the spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many lives.

"One enemy spy knows the secret of the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin-code name: The Needle-who holds the key to the ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is coming to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life"-- Cover verso.

In 18th Century Scotland, Mack MacAsh, a rebellious youth who tried to escape from a slave mine, is caught and deported in chains to America. On the same boat is the mine owner's son, travelling to his plantation in Virginia, and with him is his fiancee, Lizzie Hallim, who helped MacAsh escape. She and MacAsh will meet again and love will bloom.

A tale set during the height of the Cold War follows one man's journey to uncover family secrets on a quest that leads him into the heart of the nation's burgeoning space program.