The Ryries have suffered a loss: the death of a baby just fifty-seven hours after his birth. Without words to express their grief, the parents, John and Ricky, try to return to their previous lives. The couple's children, ten-year-old Biscuit and thirteen-year-old Paul, responding to the unnamed tensions around them, begin to act out in exquisitely idiosyncratic ways. But as the family members scatter into private, isolating grief, an unexpected visitor arrives, and they find themselves growing more alert to the hurt, humor, warmth, and burdens of others—to the grief that is part of every human life but that also carries within it the power to draw us together.

The Bread Factory is the scene for rehearsals of the Greek play Hecuba. But the real theatrics are outside the theater, with the town invaded by bizarre tourists and mysterious tech start-up workers. There is a new normal in Checkford, if it is even really Checkford any longer.

When the Buddies stumble upon the Five Power Rings of Inspiron, they all develop super powers, and are enlisted in Captain Canine's battle against the evil Commander Drex. The pups have to master their abilities quick - for the Commander is headed to Earth, determined to defeat Captain Canine.

Two drunk parents attempt to hide their ever increasing financial difficulties from their daughter and social circle through elaborate neighborhood schemes.