What exactly is the tenuous connection between an individual and culture? When does a cultural tradition cease to offer security to its members and instead becomes so confining that one must protest or rebel to survive as an individual? These issues, which had often undercut the author's well-intentioned research plans, compelled her to pay attention to the subjective aspect of research as much as the objective ones. This was the beginning of an inner exploration which led her to become a Jungian psychotherapist and a different kind of observer of human nature and culture.

Drawing on personal experiences and interviews with others, Roy explores the frustrations and rewards in the lives of Hindu Bengali women in upper and upper-middle class families in India. Roy traces the psychological dimensions of these women as they play their specific roles, including daughter, wife, mother, and sister-in-law.
In a new Afterword, Roy discusses changes in Bengali society and culture over the last two decades which have direct bearings on women's lives: divorce and the breakup of the joint family, education, increasing Westernization via television and women's magazines, and the erosion of traditional religious practices.