Dawn Porter's journey around the world looking at the most extreme ways that women find love, and live, with men, finishes with a trip to the USA to enter the controversial and secretive world of polygamy. From a whole town of polygamists to a family hiding in the wilderness while the husband searches for a third wife, Dawn meets the women who share their men and asks: "Does sharing your life and husband with multiple wives really work and make everyone happy?"
With a backdrop of international headlines blaring about abuse inside a Texas Mormon community, the first part of Dawn's experience sees her travel to remote Arizona to try to gain access to an extraordinary town where all the families live a polygamous lifestyle. But the news breaking about the alleged abuse in Texas has made the community nervous and Dawn must face a jury of senior polygamist wives before she's let into the town. "I couldn't have chosen a worse moment to get into a Mormon household," she admits.
"…we're putting our faces out there, we're putting our lives in danger, our children in danger, our husbands our livelihoods, our homes, our family, our community", explains one senior wife. "And believe you me, Dawn, that takes courage. And I'm glad that we have ladies that have that kind of courage to stand up for our way of living. We don't say it's for everybody but we say it's for us."
Against the odds and after an intense interview, Dawn is allowed access to the community and moves in with a prosperous family of three wives and some 20 children, witnessing first hand some of the positives and negatives of this unusual arrangement.
Next Dawn gets a husband's point of view, meeting a man living in a remote part of the desert with his two wives and children as he seeks wife number three. Talking to the women and children in this modest setting, Dawn discovers the sacrifices people make for this uncoventional way they live and love.
"The minus side is jealousy," says Dawn at the end of her trip. "Gnawing, uncomfortable and very real. But there is a plus side too, a growing sense of companionship and mutual help – especially when times get tough".
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