Overview

The Cobhams of California have wealth, beauty, and a lot to discuss. Now that the controlling patriarch is dead, the four heirs must come together to sort out the estate and sharpen some long-buried hatchets. Geoff: the golden boy who stormed out of the kingdom Maddie: the endlessly restless, much married author James: the practical, cynical businessman Kate: the dreamer who wants to save the planet and revive the dead When Kate and Maddie meet after a long separation at their favorite caf?, they discover that the family fortune is depleted, their Geoff is dying, and James is seen only in the courtrooms where Kate tries to stop his real estate developments. "Let's play happy family," snaps Maddie in frustration. With intelligence and humor, the sisters find common ground as they research their family's history and decide to honor their ancestors with more than a few good martinis. They write a book about those ancestors and manage to weave their brothers, husbands, and children into an unbroken family pattern. Their ancestors in the Chesapeake colonies of early America were creating a new world. Will Cobham and his sons, John and Philip, have varied approaches. John's favorite grandson, Samuel, meets his own splendid match in the beautiful Rebecca White. Together they travel from wilderness to colony to state as they create a new, if imperfect, nation. As they recreate the colonial Cobhams, the modern Cobhams of the twentieth century begin to hear other echoes of a different time, a time still alive and lingering in their own blood, resonating with shared emotions, fears, and dreams.