George and Emily decide they''re through with sex.

Too bad they''re not married to each other. Their respective spouses, Anne and Robert, aren''t at all happy with this turn of events. When Emily, on impulse, offers Anne her husband''s services, Anne actually thinks: Why not? Robert may have hair in his ears, but he''s got a trim body, an interesting face. And the two couples have been friends for decades, so no one would be jealous, no one will get hurt.

Could life, just this once, be that simple?

"Are you kidding?"

say a woman named Jane and her mother, the writers of this novel-within-a novel. Archeologists of human nature, they pick up the shards, put them back together. But it''s a new mosaic—pieces not where they used to be, not where they ought to be. Not where you''d think.