The novel “The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five” by Doris Lessing was published for the first time in 1980. It’s the second novel of the Canopus in Argos series and follows “Shikasta”.

The Providers decided that Al-Ith, the Queen of Zone Three, must marry Ben-Ata, the King of Zone Four as a solution to the problem of the fertility collapse of both humans and animals in the two Zones. The two sovereigns embody the practically opposite characteristics of their original Zones and their relationship, that neither of them wanted, is complicated from the beginning.

Initially, each of the two spouses is baffled by characteristics of the other they finds incomprehensible yet the contact between the two of them starts a change in them that also leads to a better mutual understanding. Their paths remain personal while the Providers have their plans that involve Zone Five as well.