With all the distractions of the times we are living in, intermarital relations remain a subject of pertinence and interest to the responsible public. In an era of rapidly changing morality (an era, for example, when the wife of an American president can openly discuss abortion, her daughter's virginity—or lack thereof—and her sexual relationship with the President) the institution of marriage becomes an increasingly complex arrangement. The dangers, the potential unhappiness that can occur in the relationship, increase. So do the potential rewards. That is one reason why we, the publishers, were particularly pleased to have the opportunity to publish this exciting new novel. With incisive insight, the author has woven a gripping story of two couples, thrown together accidentally, immediately and irrefutably attracted to each other. Without moralizing or sensationalizing the sexual passages necessary to this shocking but entirely plausible story, the author has painted a fascinating and often heartbreaking epic of two couples, four marriage partners, trying to come to terms with their own jealousy, their own human needs, and their sure knowledge of their respective partners' infidelity.