Burt enters his office one day to find a large handwritten folder marked 'CONFIDENTIAL'. The unexpected package has come from an old university mate: a charming, successful, and well - loved Australian man named Ted Harris. Twenty - five years post - university, Ted seems to have it all: a partnership in a successful law firm, respect, wealth, and the perfect wife. However, as Burt delves deeper into these documents - which turn out to be an intensely personal confessional - he discovers that things are not what they seem, and that Ted harbours a dark and mysterious past relating to his first wife, peculiar Swiss biochemist Yvonne. In The Other Wife, Jurgensen uses his unique writing style and several narrative voices to examine the internal conflicts of disease, our responsibility for those we care for, and the very nature of this undefinable thing we call love.