It was Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, who remarked, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." This statement appears to be just as true today as it was then. Perhaps it is even more valid today considering the pressures and frequent monotony of today's world. The majority of today's men and women live in an overcrowded, competitive, noisy world. Most are put into slots and walk on a treadmill - going to boring jobs, living in carbon-copy houses, socializing with the same people. Their desperation is reflected in the rising rate of divorce, alcoholism, drug addiction, and at times is frighteningly released through violent and seemingly unmotivated crime. The fictional characters in WIFE SWAPPING are desperate people, like their real-life counterparts. Bored, frustrated, unhappy, they seize at the first opportunity for release. In their need, they cast aside morals and scruples, determined to live only for the moment, to grab at pleasure before it is taken away. WIFE SWAPPING is a novel about the "quiet desperation" in so many of us - and the extremes to which it may drive us.