In the early 1970s, the International Feminist Collective began to organise around the call for recognition of the different forms of labour performed by women. They paved the way for the feminist campaign 'Wages for Housework' which made great strides towards debates in social reproduction and the gendered aspects of labour. .Toupin looks at the history of this movement between 1972 and 1977, featuring unpublished conversations with some of its founders including Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa, as well as activists from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the United States and Canada.
The books gives the account of the three years Joyce Roper spent in Turkey, living in Nar, a small village in Anatolia. She found a society with a traditional culture, ruled by laws of religious observance, in which women play, and expect to play, a subservient role. The author helped the women with their daily work in the field and the making of bread, attended their births and deaths, celebrated with them at their ceremonies, weddings and festivals.