Mary, Tanya and Zoe had been inseparable in college. But in the twenty years or more that followed, the three had moved on with their lives, settled in different cities, and found successful careers and new roles as mothers and wives. At a sprawling ranch in Wyoming the three women, each by chance finding themselves alone for a few weeks one summer, come together and find courage, healing and truth, and reach out to each other again.

Once they shared everything, but now pretence between them runs high. Mary, married for twenty-two years to a Manhattan lawyer, masks the guilt and fear that her husband will never forgive her for their son's death. Tanya, a singer and rock star, enjoys all the trappings of fame and success - a mansion in Bel Air, legions of fans, and a broken heart - for the children she wanted but never had, and the men who have takehn advantage of her. Zoe has her hands full as single mother to an adopted two-year-old, and as a doctor at an AIDS clinic in San Francisco, until unexpected news forces her to re-evaluate both her future, and her current life.

But their friendship is still a bond they all treasure and share. For each of the women, a few weeks at the ranch bring healing and release. In The Ranch, bestselling author Danielle Steel brings reality to the meaning of friendship, with dramas whose truths we all share.