Adam is desperate for a son, but after ten years of marriage, he and his wife Asabe remain childless. Fueled by desperation and a long held secret, Adam marries a second wife. Fatima is very young and beautiful, but she has no affection for her new husband. Despite the jealousy and bitterness that can often exist between co-wives, Asabe and Fatima become as close as sisters. Yet too young, Fatima dies giving birth to Adam's twin children, but still he is not fated to have the son he desires above all else. In an added cruelty Adam loses his business to fire. Adam compounds his difficulties by making a deal with a wealthy businessman to marry his spoiled divorced daughter Sauda in exchange for the funds necessary to rebuild. Read An Unproductive Woman to learn how Asabe finds the strength to live with the cunning, deceptive, and willful Sauda, and to learn what secrets Adam has withheld that would explain his unreasonable longing and pursuit of a son at all costs.