The story of Ann Eliza Young's crusade against polygamy interwines with a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah.

Ellis Kimball, sixteen, whose anxiety disorder causes her to prepare for the imminent end of the world, meets Hannah, who claims to know when it will happen.

"". Against the wishes of his family and the laws of the elders of the Mormon church, Blake Nelson has adopted the old polygamous ways and lives alone with his three wives, miles from anywhere, in rural Utah. Blake and his wives kept to themselves-and kept most folks out. That is, until his dead body is discovered. Black Widows is told in the three voices of Blake's very different wives, who hate each other, and who sometimes hated their husband....

"A sprawling story about a Mormon homesteading family in Southern California"--

"The Mormon church may have disavowed the polygamy it became so famous for in the 19th century, but for some Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, "plural marriage" isn't just ancient history Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim is stunned to learn her son Kenneth has gotten engaged to a young woman from a polygamous family. Naomi Carter may have left the religion she grew up in, but the Carters will still be the Wallheims' in-laws once Kenneth and Naomi...