In the Thorn Bird style Thy Brother's Wife, the author focuses his penetrating vision on one of the most threatening crises in the life of a family as he explores the passions of two brothers, one a priest and one a senator, who, each in his own way, love the same woman. The direction of their lives was shaped for Paul and Scan Cronin the day their father, a self-made multi-millionaire, decided that one of his two boys would grow up to be a Cardinal and the other would become President of the United States.