abused wives

Elissa Wall discusses her life growing up as a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, the trials she endured after the polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs forced her to marry her cousin at the age of fourteen, events that led to her leaving the church, and her decision to testify against Jeffs when he was brought to trial on charges of arranging marriages between adult male followers and underage girls.

A poor black Southern woman named Celie befriends two women who help her overcome the brutality of her father and husband.

Tells the story of two African-American sisters: Nettie, a missionary in Africa, and Celie, a child-wife living in the south, in the medium of their letters to each other and in Celie's case, the desperate letters she begins, "Dear God.".