The slow but inevitable moral degeneration of a weak woman. Describes the patient rendering of the squalor and narrowness of provincial life and of its effect on the woman's mind.

'!for her, life was as cold as an attic with a window looking to the north, and ennui, like a spider, was silently spinning its shadowy web in every cranny of her heart.' Married to Charles, a provincial doctor, Emma Bovary yearns for a more glamorous life. Disenchanted with her husband and seeking an escape from their dull marriage she is soon tempted into a brief romantic liaison with another man. Although short-lived, she remains desirous of passion...

"From the outside, the Knowles family appeared to have it all - a loving marriage, two beautiful children, a home in an idyllic part of the countryside in upstate New York. Michael is a rising OB/GYN at a prominent private practice, his wife, Annie, teaches at a local college. But Annie's role as 'the doctor's wife' has worn thin, and Michael has answered the call of an old flame to moonlight at the local women's health center, the city's only provider...

This is a novel about an ordinary woman, in the middle of her life, seized by love for a younger man.

Elizabeth Pike, 35, comes home for lunch to her perfect house in a perfect neighborhood in a beautiful little town to find her husband, Dr. John Pike, on the sofa with a gun. She recognizes a piece of notebook paper in his hand as a letter from her lover.

Paige has only a few memories of her mother, who abandoned her at five. She dreams of art school, marries a doctor-- and becomes a mother herself. But her mother's absence has made her doubt both her ability to give, and her own self-worth.

The wife of a town doctor dreams of initiating social reforms and introducing art and literature to the community.