Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.

Still mourning the death of her mother a few years back, ALICE McKINLEY finds her life seriously disrupted when her father BEN buys a store and moves her and her older brother LESTER to a new town. In the painful throes of adolescence, Alice has a rough time adjusting to her new school, especially after she gets the stern MRS. PLOTKIN as her core teacher. Feeling shy and isolated, Alice frequently escapes into a vivid fantasy life that occasionally gets her into hot water. But with a little unexpected help from Mrs. Plotkin, Alice learns not to judge by appearances or jump to conclusions. More importantly, she confronts her father over his inability to accept their loss and move on into the future…

In the late 1890s the Davenport House was a famous and successful brothel, until a young prostitute named Alice killed herself there. After her death, the brothel became haunted by Alice’s ghost, and was eventually abandoned. More than a century later, the old structure is renovated into a beautiful mansion. It is still rumored to inhabit the ghost of Alice. Despite this, the new owner; the rich and arrogant heir to the Davenport fortune, decides to throw a wild party for his first night in the house.

Ed and Alice are two months shy of getting married when she realizes that she wishes she’d had a more active love life while still single. Reluctantly, Ed agrees to have an open relationship in the months before their wedding, and initially this seems to improve their connection, particularly in the bedroom. However, as Ed and Alice get more involved in their own flings, the experiment goes awry.

“To Have and to Hold” centers on Alice who still can’t believe her high school crush, the dashing, wealthy and successful Joe Chambers, would choose to marry her and willingly allows him to mold her into his ideal socialite wife. Despite Alice’s best efforts to be the woman of Joe’s dreams, he can’t help but be unfaithful to her. When Joe’s indiscretions impact his career, Alice’s life is further turned upside down. Alice unexpectedly finds herself falling for her best friend’s boyfriend and begins to wonder if her fairy tale ending could exist after all.