Irene, a female galactic agent, rescues a young woman, Zubeydeh, from a male-dominant culture of a colonized planet, Ala-ed-deen, where women are kept in purdah.
...shivers generically between telling the realistic story of oppression -and escape- of a young woman brought up on a planet whose religion is reminiscent of Islam, and deconstructing this generic material into the embittered dreams of a woman trapped on Earth
This novel uses characters and a setting from Suzette Haden Elgin's short story For the Sake of Grace with Elgin's permission. Russ discloses this in the novel's dedication page.
Cortiel, Jeanne. "Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ/Feminism/Science Fiction" in Science Fiction Texts and Studies. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 1999. pp. 64–70, 104-121. ISBN0-85323-614-3.
Spencer, Kathleen L. "Rescuing the Female Child: The Fiction of Joanna Russ" Science Fiction Studies 17.2 (1990): pp. 167–187.
