Paddy is the charismatic film producer who has got used to having his cake and eating it. Joscelyn has tolerated her husband's philandering for years, and has always been confident that their unusual union is happy and secure. But when one of Paddy's girlfriends becomes pregnant all the relationships involved come under immense strain. Paddy has the competing demands of wife and mistress, and they come under threat from a third woman who is hoping to take both their places. There are difficult decisions to be made, and this prompts a dramatic end in which the Philanderer's Wife has to decide on the future of her marriage.

Infidelity is the most common major crisis of marriage. In this wise book, a psychiatrist and family therapist discusses four kinds of infidelity, why they happen, and what they mean.

The second of Shaw’s “unpleasant” plays, written in 1893, published in 1898, but not performed until 1905, The Philanderer is subtitled “A Topical Comedy.” The eclectic range of topical subjects addressed in the play includes the influence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen on British middle-class social mores (the second act of The Philanderer is set in the fictional Ibsen Club), medical follies, the rise of the “New Woman,” and, in particular, the destructive impact of Victorian marriage and divorce laws. Just as Shaw’s other “unpleasant” plays, Widowers’ Houses and Mrs Warren’s Profession, call, respectively, for reform of laws that allow corrupt property owners to exploit the poor and for radical change to economic structures that drive women into prostitution, so The Philanderer makes the case for more liberal legislation to allow easier divorce—particularly for women—when marriages become irretrievably broken. Shaw’s attack on divorce laws becomes even clearer and stronger in the final act that he wrote for the play but discarded in favour of the version he published. The discarded version is published for the first time in this Broadview edition of the play.

Many single woman–married man relationships are characterized by such recognizable, even stereotypic, interactions and run such a predictable course as to constitute a genuine syndrome. Documenting the existence of this syndrome with case histories from inside and outside clinical practice, Dr. Tuch gives serious consideration to the complex dynamics involved and offers a framework to help patients struggling with their involvement in such affairs. A broader discussion of relations between men and women evolves and addresses such issues as men's dread of women; women's unique inclinations to employ masochistic adaptations in their relations with men; married couples' varied styles of dealing with their differences; the relationship of power and control to the processes of domination, submission, and the act of surrendering; and the development of the capacity to fall and remain in love.