In the fervor of World War II Baltimore, the ill-matched Pauline and Michael are impulsively united in a hasty marriage. As the idealistic image of their union crumbles, their life unravels through subsequent decades marked by cultural shifts and personal crises. A vanished daughter propels them into a reluctant guardianship of their young grandson, Pagan, amidst their enduring conflicts. Through Anne Tyler's perceptive prose, 'The Amateur Marriage' navigates the labyrinth of familial bonds, exposing the fragile seams of love and duty that tether hearts through the trials of an ordinary, yet profoundly human, life.