This is a book about longing and how three people have to break through their respective prisons, whether literal or metaphoric. David, a man, in actual prison for growing marijuana longs for her and has to deal with being in prison. Peter, her husband, is in the prison of not being loved enough by a wife who is obsessed with freedom. And Mira, the wife, feels that marriage is a prison for her and only being herself will make her free. She creates a situation where they all get to break their binds. quote: Mira looks away and can't make sense of this or herself. All she knows is that she is rising, rising with desire everywhere, it's starting to overtake her, her desire for allurement, sexuality, for love, lust, oranges, sand, toes, sandals. It's rising up in her and god knows what will happen if she allows this desire to rise and overtake her, she will start throwing things out of cupboards, she will scream, scream to be loved, she will feel her breasts against her clothes all the time calling to be touched, her sex wet, bedeviling her, time rushing as she stays still. What she does instead is run her hand primly over the hem of her print dress.