The book club met every Wednesday under the guise of discussing literature, but the shelves of Hanna’s library held secrets far more potent than fiction. It was founded two years ago when Alana , Mia, Hanna and Rose realized their husbands—all prominent doctors—shared a very specific, archaic philosophy on "wifely health." They discovered that all four of them lived under the same firm, medical hand.

​The club became a sanctuary where they could confess the truth: their husbands were authoritarian, slightly sadistic, and convinced that every minor ailment, bout of "hysteria," or seasonal change required a series of painful injections. The ladies had grown to crave the very discipline they feared, finding a strange, submissive peace in the sting of the steel needles.