How is a woman supposed to act at the bedside of her husband in a coma? Caroline's son points out that dyeing her hair, right there in the hospital, is a weird choice. Caroline is also re-living the one perilous point in her marriage, when it seemed possible her husband might defect - to a beautiful friend of their daughter's. Mediocre marriages weren't in such jeopardy.

Meanwhile, in the age of the uncommitted male, David Sanderson's wife has been unfaithful and he minds like hell. Counsellors offer him workshops, Prozac and Viagra. His wife offers slinky undies instead of the cotton ones he loves. Why won't anyone accept that he's not depressed... he's heartbroken?

Anne Taylor Fleming's witty and captivating portrait of spouses in crisis challenges the ways we look at marriage today.