Arriving in Ohio in 1831, Joseph and Emma Smith lodged with the Whitneys, whose five-year-old daughter, Sarah Ann, and eleven-year-old neighbor, Mary Elizabeth Rollins, were awed by the young prophet. Relocating to the Johnson household, Smith met fifteen-year-old Marinda Nancy. Several years later, seven-year-old Helen Mar Kimball attended school near the Smith home. Each of these girls, whom Smith met in the 1830s, would secretly marry him in the 1840s as a celestial, or plural, wife. As Joseph granted this favor of multiple wives to the elect men of Nauvoo, Illinois, participants in this radical form of marriage--men and women--documented their experiences in intimate detail through journals, letters, and affidavits. Their stories are now thoroughly tracked in this impressive new history. The author also traces the roots of polygamy from the latter days of sixteenth-century Europe and discusses its continuation in pioneer Utah.