The annual fall party on Silent Ridge Road is supposed to be a celebration of community—an entire day of drinking cider, sharing laughs, and forgetting any tension that's been simmering beneath the surface all year. But beneath the festive décor, polite smiles, and pumpkin-spiced charm of this small-town block lies a tangled web of deceit, obsession, and death. The neighbors are hiding dangerous secrets.

A down-on-her-luck waitress at a posh New Jersey country club, Kim Valva couldn’t be living a more different life from the carefree socialites she serves. Her live-in boyfriend recently cheated on her, her social life is in shambles, and her dog needs a life-saving surgery that she can’t afford. Then her luck seems to change when a mysterious figure identifying themself only as The Stranger contacts her with an offer she can’t refuse: Put a pill in the new member’s drink and, when he dies, she’ll have enough money to fix her dog and her life.

This is the day my life changes forever. It started so normally. The alarm went at 7am. My husband made bacon and pancakes for me and our seven-year-old daughter, the kitchen full of chatter and laughter. He gave me a quick kiss, told me he loved me, grabbed his wallet, and rushed off to work. Just an ordinary day. Until I get the call from the school. It was Tom’s turn to pick up our daughter. He must be held up for some reason. I find Tom’s phone under our bed. Now I know there’s something seriously wrong. I scroll through his messages. A text sent late last night: I KNOW EVERYTHING.

Fiona Fisher lives a quiet and contented existence. A former nurse who married Jason, the doctor of her dreams, she is now a mother to his two daughters and living in the sort of cosy village home she’d always wished for.

I’ve been married to my kind, loving husband Lachlan for over twenty years. He’s my everything. We have two teenage children, a beautiful home and I feel so lucky to live this perfect life. Until my best friend says something that makes me doubt everything… She whispers it’s strange Lachlan has lived nearby to two unsolved murder cases. First, the murder of the woman in the small, Scottish village where he grew up and more recently the shocking death of a woman who lived round the corner from us. The thought makes my head spin. It’s just a coincidence, surely?

I blink awake to the sound of whispering, and look around. Automatically, I do a count. And then I am upright, my heart racing. I count again. “Girls,” I say, trying to sound calm. “Did you see Evie?” It was meant to be a celebration. A team sleepover in the school gymnasium: movies, pizza, hot chocolate. I walk among the girls, checking they’re ok. They collect in groups and giggle, play truth or dare.

Amanda Davis has it all: a beautiful home, a thriving career, and a charismatic husband who is the darling of television news. But when Paul kills someone in a disturbing accident, Amanda’s perfect world shatters. Pulled into a web of manipulation, deceit, and dark secrets, she becomes his unwilling accomplice, trapped in a twisted, dangerous existence that tests the limits of love and loyalty.

ME: Staring down at the sweet baby in my arms, I feel panic instead of love. Because this isn’t the child I gave birth to. My husband whispers to the midwife. They all think I’m going crazy. But the tiny boy in my arms is crying again. I’m certain: he knows I’m not his mummy. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get my son back.

I used to enjoy my job. I was good at it and felt fulfilled. I also used to enjoy spending time with the people I worked with. They say you spend more time with your work colleagues than you do with your family members, but that was fine by me because I made two very good friends at the office. I also allowed myself to get a little too close to my boss, but I soon realized that was a mistake. Unfortunately, it was too late by then, and as my personal and professional lives quickly blurred into one, that was when everything changed.

The first lie got him in trouble. Our romantic date night was meant to fix us. But when my husband grabs my hand and says he needs to tell me something, I can tell from the look in his eyes that our marriage is in deep trouble. The second lie ruined our marriage. We’ve been here before. I wonder who she is. Is she younger than me? For a moment I wonder if I’ll forgive him. But I always do. It’s the only way to keep our family together.

My delicate newborn, Lola, is just perfect. She’s made our family complete. My wonderful husband Max has his own children. He doesn’t like to talk about his first wife – and I knew it would be hard, becoming a stepmother. But now I have a child of my own. I can forget about the past.

Stay-at-home mother Marta lives in her successful husband’s shadow, overlooked by him ever since her darling son Owen went to medical school. She’s not about to let the beautiful Gina take Owen away from her. Marta will play nice, get Gina to trust her. And then she has a plan of her own.

I’ve never felt welcome in my husband Dominic’s family home. His parents make it clear I’m a poor comparison to his perfect first wife, Carla. But we’re here for Christmas, so it’s important to pretend everything is fine. Until Dominic’s mother bustles into our bedroom. Smiling thinly, she blindsides me: ‘You won’t mind, will you. Carla is coming for the holidays. She’s still one of the family to us, and she can’t get home because of the storm.’ My eyes widen—did she and Carla plan this on purpose? I know Dominic won’t say a thing. He never stands up to his parents.

Hickory Hills is the perfect place to raise a family. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes, that’s a bad thing. The morning after the Halloween party, the word spreads from house to house, each resident gasping at the news, each mother holding their child tighter. Shelby has gone missing. My daughter should be distraught, but she’s claiming they weren’t even friends anymore. When I go to talk to her, I hear her giggling on the phone with Shelby’s boyfriend. And then I find her Halloween costume, stuffed into a bag in her closet, covered in blood.

I take a sip of coffee as I plan my day. My surgeon husband, Cole, slept at work last night, so I had to get the kids ready on my own, again. I can’t complain, though, I’ve loved him ever since we met, long before he became a famous surgeon and the papers started calling him the pride of the hospital. Our latest family photo hangs on the kitchen wall and I remember that day so clearly. Cole screamed at me over nothing, then apologised saying he was stressed at work. My heart pounded with fear, but I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of my children.