(Oliver Watson's world suddenly dissolves around him when Sarah, his wife of eighteen years, returns to Harvard to get her master's degree. Oliver is left on his own, with three children and a freedom he never wanted. When Oliver's mother is diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease and dies soon thereafter, Oliver's father's life is changed as well. Braver than his son and with less of a future before him, George Watson, at seventy-two, quickly embraces new relationships and, eventually, a new marriage.

Ben, Oliver's oldest son, rejects his father and reaches outward, under the illusion that he is grown-up and can make it on his own. Melissa, the middle child, blames Oliver for her mother's desertion. And Sam, the "baby," is too shaken to deal with it all. Now the only parent, "Daddy" must somehow cope with his troubled family and explore a world of new responsibilities, new women, and new experiences. Each of the three men must start a new life:

Oliver in New York and then in Los Angeles with his children and his new relationships with women; his widowed father with the woman next door; and seventeen-year-old Ben with his girlfriend and baby. Nothing is as it was before...nothing is as they once thought it would be. But in the end, different is better...different is more...for each of them -- and especially for "Daddy."

Bestselling author Danielle Steel paints a poignant portrait of Oliver Watson, a man who thinks his life is perfect--he has a great job, a beautiful home, a good relationship with his parents, three healthy children, and a loving wife. Things change the day Oliver Watson comes home from work to learn that his wife is going away to graduate school, leaving him to play full-time daddy, super-employee, and son-on-call; Oliver soon discovers that it is impossible to "have it all," all by himself. Through trial and error, and by watching the courageous examples set by his teenage son coping with his girlfriend's unplanned pregnancy and his father learning to love again after the death of his Alzheimer's stricken wife, Oliver discovers for himself that love can occur more than once and dreams can change for the better. One of Steel's best! --Alison Trinkle

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