As a modern-minded woman in the year 2657, Dr. Mary Malone is less than thrilled with the task of documenting the domestic life of a married couple in the eighteenth-century Scottish highlands. But though she is appalled by the fact that men in that barely civilized era were known to take it upon themselves to discipline their wives-with a firm hand or a leather strap applied to the bare bottom, no less-she is a historian who takes her duties seriously,...