Peter Hoenig, an anthropology graduate student from Boston, is having doubts about his future, both the field he has chosen and the woman to whom he is engaged. He is not even enthused about his research trip to five cultural sanctuaries, or Forbidden Places, to observe traditional wedding ceremonies. On the island of Ni'ihau, he meets Mele, a pretty strong-willed nineteen-year-old who persuades him to marry her so she can leave her island. Now he feels responsible for this young woman who knows nothing of the world and is so different in every way from him. But there is no time to get to know each other. They must travel to the other Forbidden Places on his itinerary, a journey that takes them to remote corners of China, India, Afghanistan, and Kenya, where they witness sometimes shocking traditions and customs of the past as they struggle with doubts about the marriage they jumped into so impulsively.