<p>"We must do something to pass the time, I thought. Two women in a room, hands and feet tied."<br><br>Kidnapped in Nigeria by a group not unlike Boko Haram, two women, Nwabulu and Julie, relate the stories of the very different lives fate has meted out for them.<br><br>When Nwabulu's father dies, her stepmother sends her off to become a housemaid. For years, she suffers the abuse of employers, a love affair with an employer's son offering little comfort. Out of their union a son is born, but the young Nwabulu has to give him up, and is bound to suffer in her stepmother's home again until she can flee, establishing herself as a fashion designer, and finally able to inhabit Julie's world.<br><br>Julie: privileged, educated, and adored by her parents. She has the opportunity to become whomever she desires. But sometimes too much choice can be a dangerous thing, and in Julie's case it is. At thirty-four she is still unmarried and, for the first time, there is pressure: a burden that will only be lifted with the birth of a son. So determined is Julie for release that she goes as far as a polygamous marriage.<br><br>While the two women wait for the ransom to be paid, fate will once again decide the course of their lives.</p>