Walter adores Louise because, being young and trusting, she is not yet sad or bizarre or confused or defeated or depressed or enraged or crazed. He and Louise have a model relationship in these modern times, when psychology has replaced religion, brides and grooms are best friends, men have learned to give and forgive, and women express their passion freely. Never will Louise be like her stay-at-home mother, Dorothy, who has given her husband the gift of submission.

Never will Louise be like Walter's dilettante sister, Mary Pristine, who drowns the disappointment of her failed relationships with alcohol. Louise will live happily - and equally - ever after with good-hearted Walter.

In this provocative, sometimes funny, and often poignant novel, Lawrence Naumoff relates his vision of the derailment of the sexual revolution. In doing so, he exposes the expectations and illusions that men and women bring to their fragile unions, revealing an enduring plan for women. Not much has changed through the years - not much at all.