When ruthless billionaire Harry Stanford is found drowned off the coast of Corsica, his three legitimate children gather at Rose Hill, the Stanford estate in Boston. They are Woody, a polo-playing playboy who likes to abuse both drugs and his ex-waitress wife; Tyler, who has parlayed a first-rate legal mind into a Chicago judgeship; and Kendall, whose success as a fashion designer is marred by her dark secret and the blackmailer who knows it. The mogul's will dictates that his fortune be divided among his "issue"?including the beautiful young woman who, hearing of her father's death, flies to Boston to at last meet her half-siblings. She is Julia Stanford, the tycoon's cast-off love child, now an enterprising executive secretary in Kansas. Of course, Julia finds herself cast as an object of suspicion by the doubting Stanfords. But even as she is drawn into the web of deceit that surrounds the family fortune, the troubled lives of the other heirs and, it turns out, Harry Stanford's death, she finds, in typical Sheldon fashion, enduring romance.

This novel continues the exciting story begun in Sheldon's "The Other Side of Midnight." In that novel, mega-rich Constantin Demiris manipulated the Greek court to have his mistress, Noelle, and her lover, Larry, executed for the murder of Larry's wife, Catherine. No body was ever found, and in fact, Catherine was alive and well, under the watchful eyes of Demiris.

The Best Laid Plans begins with the meeting and mating of Oliver Russell, a promising young attorney-cum-gubernatorial candidate, and Leslie Stewart, the beautiful go-getter who is running his public relations campaign. Just as the pair is about to be wed, Russell's mentor, Senator Todd Davis, offers him a deal he can't refuse: marry my daughter and I will make you president. Russell accepts and Stewart vows revenge. The lion's share of The Best Laid Plans revolves around the young pol's rise to power and Stewart's byzantine plotting to bring him to grief. Russell gives his phony wife plenty of opportunities because, like every fictional president (and some real ones), Russell has an unruly libido.

This is the behind-the-scenes story of megastar Toby Temple. He rose from poverty to become the biggest entertainer on TV and in the movies, as well as a first-class heel who used and discarded everyone in his path. It is also the story of Jill Temple who ran off to Hollywood with stars in her eyes, but never got her big break, despite experiencing every casting couch in town. She and Toby marry, and then she uses her new power to destroy those who hurt her. Little did she know it would all end in murder.

Four scientists working for the New York–based Kingsley International Group have died or disappeared within 24 hours. Wolfish top boss Tanner Kingsley vows to find the perpetrator; meanwhile, stunning artist Diane Stevens, wife of a just-murdered KIG scientist, and supermodel Kelly Harris, whose husband has likewise been killed, find themselves under attack by mysterious strangers. Diane and Kelly form an uneasy alliance, though both spend most of their time ruminating on their wonderful (now dead) husbands.