THE WIFE, for the most part, is a diatribe on the unfairness of it all, of being married to a selfish man and of the uselessness of a woman’s trying to make it in a man’s world.

Joan and Joe meet when she is a student at Smith College and he is her professor. They have an affair, and Joe leaves his wife and infant daughter for Joan. No surprise, he continues to have affairs throughout their marriage, although he never leaves her.

Joe has never wanted anything more than to be a writer. But, so far, he has published only a short story in a small periodical. After he marries Joan, though, his career picks up. (It was at this point that I predicted the “surprise.”) Joe becomes a successful and highly praised author. As a matter of fact, when THE WIFE opens, he and Joan are flying to Finland so he can receive a prestigious international award.

It is during this trip that Joan remembers their marriage in a series of flashbacks, and she reflects on the unfairness of it all. Yet she never seemed to want fairness until now, when she has finally had it with Joe getting all the praise.

When the “surprise” is revealed in one of Joan’s flashbacks, I wasn’t surprised.