Only veteran author Danielle Steel can make dysfunction this fashionable! In Malice, her 37th potboiler, the gloves come off. Life is no fairy tale for teenager Grace Adams. The preternaturally quiet and dowdy daughter of Watseka's favorite son, lawyer John Adams, and his lovely, cancer-stricken wife Ellen, Grace has an ugly little secret...

Architect Charles Waterston has a job he loves, a charming and beautiful wife, and an idyllic life in London. But when everything comes crashing down around him--his wife leaving him for another man and his sudden transfer back to the New York home office--Charles takes a well-deserved ski vacation in Vermont. When an unexpected snowstorm strands Charles in a small town, he takes refuge in a small bed-and-breakfast. The proprietor, an elderly widow, also owns a family home in the woods, which Charles decides to rent. Soon after moving in, Charles senses a ghostly presence.

The plot follows Bernard Fine, a fictional character in his 30's who has recently been promoted to senior vice-president of Wolff's Department Store in his home town of New York. Although enjoying his life, Bernie is sent to San Francisco to open a new Wolff's store. Bernie gets a new outlook on life when he falls in love with Liz O'Reilly, a resident in California and her daughter, named Jane. After forming a relationship, Liz becomes pregnant with their first child, only to devlop cancer shortly after the birth, given only a short amount of time to live.