A teenage girl has gone missing and everyone is called upon to join the search. The villagers fan out across the English moors as the police set up roadblocks and news reporters descend. Meanwhile, there is still work that must be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. As the seasons unfold and the search for the missing girl goes on, there are those who leave the village and those who...

"Caroline Dering, a widow with three grown children, lives a cheerful, quiet life near the idyllic English village of Ashbridge. But things are about to liven up, as daughter Leda announces a problematic engagement to the son of the local squire, son James returns from service and pursues romance with the squire's independent daughter, and sister Harriet, a famous actress whose latest play has bombed, retreats to Ashbridge for a break. Then there's...

"In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She's been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being...

Buffalo Valley: The town of Buffalo Valley, North Dakota--a community in farm country--is undergoing a revival. Vaughn Kyle, who's just out of the army, is looking for a place to live, a life to live. While he's waiting for his ambitious fiancee to make up her mind, he visits Buffalo Valley one snowy day and meets a young woman named Carrie Hendrickson. As they grow close, Vaughn has to question his feelings for the woman he thought he loved. He knows...

Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that considers...

Spending a boring summer in the country with her aunt turns exciting for ten-year-old Lisa when she discovers a magic kitten.

The story of three closely-related Oxfordshire communities -- a hamlet, a village, and a town -- and the memorable cast of characters who people them. Based on Thompson's own experiences as a child and young woman, it is keenly observed and beautifully narrated, quiet and evocative.

Sheriff Andy Taylor, Deputy Barney Fife and the rest of the gang have all-American adventures in the fictional, rural town of Mayberry.

During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.