What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists—not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO’s Big Love? We’ve seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith’s doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church.

Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country teeming with small town messiahs, dark secrets, and stories both heartbreaking and strange. Polygamy’s dark side—incest, forced marriages, and physical abuse—is laid bare. But Bhattacharya also finds warmth in the fundamentalist diaspora and even finds himself taking an ideological stand for polygamy’s legalization.

More than just an expose of Mormon polygamy, Secrets and Wives is the personal journey of a foreign atheist and liberal, a stranger in a strange land who grapples with hard questions about marriage, monogamy, and the very nature of faith.

Sanjiv Bhattacharya has written for Details, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Maxim. He has appeared as an expert on polygamy, discussing his Channel Four documentary, The Man with 80 Wives, on MSNBC Live, Montel Williams, and elsewhere. He lives in Connecticut.

It’s like a White House press conference. They spin, obstruct, and evade, constantly returning to buzzwords like “free agency” and “Golden Rule” . . . While Rachel “answers” the questions, Carleen mostly nods, staring at me in her mildly crazed way, as though perpetually reminding herself to smile. When I ask what the pluses of polygamy are, they warm up a little, tag-teaming the arguments like a double act. More moms means free daycare, says Rachel. Yes, so women can pursue careers, says Carleen. And having several wives makes men better husbands, says Rachel. Oh yes much more sensitive and patient, says Carleen nodding.

“So how do you live the Principle, Rachel?” I ask. And it goes quiet for a moment.

“Well, my way might not be Carleen’s way,” says Rachel. Always this proviso of freedom of choice. “But in my situation, we each had our own homes. So my husband had his own closet at my house and the same at other houses.”

“He feels like he's camping every night!” says Carleen, gleefully.

“And sometimes he’ll leave his suit in the other house and I’ll have to call my sister wife!”

“Yes but then the socks get mixed up!”

And they laugh and laugh. They laugh so heartily that I laugh along with them, more out of relief at the break in tension. And yet I suspect there’s something deliberate about this, a message is being sent. This is polygamy—mixed socks and happy, laughing wives.