Personal accounts of adultery, cruelty, desertion, and nullity fill this exposition of divorce and separation in 17th, 18th, and 19th century Scotland--a period when divorce and legal separation were available equally to men and women. Leah Leneman brings vividly to life the marriages and affairs, loves and hates experienced by men and women whose marriages broke down in this period. Their stories, told in their own words, come from the entire spectrum of Scottish society, from the aristocracy to the "common" people.