When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer, Helen had never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators, the goshawk, but in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own. Resolving to purchase and raise the deadly creature as a means to cope with her loss, she adopted Mabel, and turned to the guidance of The Once and Future King...

Helen and Klytemnestra, Spartan princesses, are married off to foreign kings to give them an heir but each rebel against their husbands' neglect, cruelty and ambition and push the limits of society to make new lives for themselves.

Matthew Poncelet is the convicted killer of two teenage lovers, preparing to end his life on death row. In response to a letter, Sister Helen Prejean visits Matthew and finds herself face-to-face with a killer who still pleads his innocence. When the date is set for his execution death by lethal injection, Poncelet asks Sister Helen to be his spiritual advisor and she agrees, little knowing the outrage that will follow her decision.

Sheriff Andy Taylor, Deputy Barney Fife and the rest of the gang have all-American adventures in the fictional, rural town of Mayberry.