Narrator: In 1960s Bologna, a young woman walked to her job as a cashier every morning. For months, she was followed by an older man. At a certain corner, he would stop and masturbate behind her. This continued, eventually happening on her walk home as well. She never told the police, believing they would dismiss it as the harmless act of a "poor old man." This woman was the mother of author Lisa Taddeo, and her silent, complex experience with this public display of desire became a foundational question for Taddeo. What did her mother feel? Was it fear, power, disgust, or something else entirely? This haunting question about the hidden, intricate, and often contradictory nature of female desire is the driving force behind Taddeo's groundbreaking work of non-fiction, Three Women. Over eight years, she immersed herself in the lives of three ordinary American women to uncover the raw and honest truths about their longings.

Narrator: Before delving into the intimate stories, it's crucial to understand the monumental journalistic effort behind Three Women. Lisa Taddeo makes it clear in her author's note that this is a work of meticulous non-fiction, born from an eight-year odyssey. She spent thousands of hours with her subjects, not just through interviews, but by embedding herself in their worlds. For two of the women, Taddeo moved to their towns to witness their daily lives, their interactions, and the environments that shaped them.

To reconstruct past events, her research was exhaustive. She drew from the women's memories, personal diaries, text messages, and emails. She also corroborated their accounts with court documents, news articles, and interviews with their friends, family, and even therapists. This establishes a profound level of credibility and depth. Taddeo explains that she chose these three specific women because their stories were relatable and intense, and because the events of their past "still sat on the women’s chests." They were chosen for their willingness to be radically honest, not just with the author, but with themselves. In the end, Taddeo states, "it is these three specific women who are in charge of their narratives. There are many sides to all stories, but this is theirs." This commitment to authenticity and ethical storytelling sets the stage for the raw and unfiltered accounts that follow.

Narrator: The first story is that of Maggie, a young woman from North Dakota whose life is irrevocably altered by an alleged relationship with her married high school English teacher, Aaron Knodel. The book introduces her as she prepares for a court appearance, a culmination of events that have left her ostracized by her community, labeled a "whore" and a liar.

Taddeo peels back the layers of Maggie's experience, revealing a vulnerable teenager grappling with her father's recent suicide and a deep sense of isolation. Her relationship with Mr. Knodel begins not with overt seduction, but with intellectual and emotional connection. He sees her, listens to her, and makes her feel special. This is illustrated in a poignant and disturbing story where he leaves notes for her inside her copy of Twilight. He doesn't just write simple love notes; he draws complex parallels between their forbidden relationship and the undying love of the book's characters, even spraying the pages with his cologne. This act is both romantic and deeply manipulative, blurring the lines between care and grooming. The relationship escalates to sexual encounters, but on his terms, creating a power dynamic that leaves Maggie feeling both desired and used. When the relationship ends and the accusations become public, Maggie's story is disbelieved, and she faces the full force of societal judgment, a stark example of how a young woman's desire and trauma can be twisted and dismissed by the world around her.

Narrator: The second woman is Lina, a housewife in Indiana trapped in a passionless marriage. She feels invisible to her husband, Ed, who hasn't kissed her with any real feeling in years. Her story is one of profound emotional and physical starvation. Lina’s desire isn't for casual sex, but for the feeling of being truly wanted and seen by a partner. She is also constrained by economics, lacking the financial independence to leave her unfulfilling marriage.

This deep-seated hunger leads her to reconnect with a high school sweetheart, Aidan, on social media. Their affair becomes the central focus of her existence. Taddeo documents Lina's meticulous efforts to capture Aidan's attention, from sending him provocative pictures to booking a hotel room near his house in the hopes he will visit. One story perfectly captures the blend of playfulness and desperation in her pursuit. For one of their secret meetings, Lina brings a Cadbury Crème Egg. In a secluded clearing, she uses the candy to perform oral sex on him, a calculated act designed to be memorable and to please him. Lina's narrative is a powerful exploration of how unfulfilled desire in a marriage can transform into an all-consuming obsession, where every text message and every stolen moment becomes a lifeline in a sea of loneliness. Her story shows a woman who is not just seeking an orgasm, but a resurrection of the feeling of being alive.

Narrator: The third narrative centers on Sloane, a successful and beautiful restaurant owner in an affluent East Coast town. On the surface, she has a perfect life and a loving marriage to a handsome chef, Richard. However, their relationship has an unconventional arrangement: Sloane has sex with other men and women, often while Richard watches.

This arrangement, initiated by Richard, complicates the very definition of Sloane's desire. Is she acting for herself, for her husband, or for both? Taddeo explores this ambiguity with nuance, showing that Sloane derives her own pleasure and sense of power from these encounters. She is desired not only by her husband but by the partners he chooses for her. Yet, this power is not absolute. The arrangement is still framed by her husband's want. The complexity of this dynamic is thrown into sharp relief when Sloane has an affair with a man named Wes, and is later confronted by his wife, Jenny. In a tense, emotional conversation in Sloane's car, Jenny spits, "You’re the woman... Don’t you know you’re supposed to have the power?" This accusation highlights the societal expectation that women should be the gatekeepers of fidelity, while also revealing Sloane's own internal conflict. She grapples with guilt, but also with the realization that her desire, even in its most liberated form, is still entangled with the expectations and judgments of others.

Narrator: A recurring and powerful theme throughout the book is how female desire is judged, policed, and often suppressed, not just by men, but by society at large and, perhaps most painfully, by other women. Taddeo notes, "it’s women... who have greater hold over other women than men have. We can make each other feel dowdy, whorish, unclean, unloved, not beautiful."

This idea is crystallized in a devastating story from the epilogue. As Taddeo’s mother is dying of cancer, she imparts one final piece of advice to her daughter. It isn't a message of hope or love, but a grim warning forged from a lifetime of experience. Her mother whispers, "Don’t let them see you happy... Other women, mostly. If they see you are happy, they will try to destroy you." This chilling lesson suggests that a woman's happiness and fulfillment are seen as a threat, something to be envied and torn down. It’s a worldview that explains why Maggie is so easily condemned by her community, why Lina feels she must hide her affair, and why Sloane’s unconventional life is a source of both fascination and judgment. The book argues that this policing of desire creates a world where women are often safest when they want nothing at all.

Narrator: Ultimately, Three Women is not a book that offers easy answers or moral judgments. Its single most important takeaway is the profound act of bearing witness. Lisa Taddeo pulls back the curtain on the private lives of Maggie, Lina, and Sloane, not to expose them, but to validate their experiences and, in doing so, to validate the complex, messy, and often contradictory desires of women everywhere. The book is an exercise in radical empathy, forcing the reader to sit with uncomfortable truths and to see the humanity in choices they might otherwise condemn.

The book begins with a quote from Charles Baudelaire: "Looking from outside into an open window one never sees as much as when one looks through a closed window." By the end, Taddeo has not just opened the window into these three lives; she has taken us inside the room. The final challenge she leaves us with is to remember that behind every closed window, "life lives, life dreams, life suffers." How might our own judgments change if we approached every person with the same curiosity and compassion that Taddeo affords her subjects?