Sarah Worth ("S") is a conventional woman, the wife of a doctor, a good mother, a responsible citizen. But when she comes under the spell of a Hindu cult leader, she flees her safe suburban existence to become a pilgrim at his ashram in Arizona. The novel consists of letters from Sarah to her husband, her small daughter, her mother and brother, her dentist and her shrink. Updike's comic satire about a woman whose consciousness undergoes a radical change is loosely based on Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER.