"I loved her concept of us as the Arab Club. She explained how, to Arab men, four is the ideal number of wives. One wife means not enough sex for the man and too much sex for the wife. Two wives will fight and if there are three wives two of them will gang up on the third. Four wives is the Goldilocks formula. A joke, a conversation piece (and we're not wives) but it gave us a harmonious role, an immediate relationship with each other."

Jeff, middle-aged and widowed, finds himself simultaneously involved with four strong-willed women—Bev, Frances, Lee and Rhoda. He tells each of them of his involvements and, to his horror, they want to meet. As a result, they become friends and start managing his life. As Jeff becomes peripheral in their relationships he learns more about gender issues than he ever wanted to know.