Jane Takagi-Little is on the road, in search of all-American wives, cooking all American meat. A starving artist, she has never considered the kitchen a career move, until she agrees to produce a Japanese television show sponsored by Beef-Ex, an organization promoting US meat export. Jane's cross-country assignment is raising cross-cultural issues - not just about her life , but also about sex, love and fertility in our time.
Akiko Ueno, a Tokyo housewife, diligently prepars the "Meat of the Week" from the recent episode of 'My American Wife!' Her "salary-man" husband, the advertising agency rep for Beef-Ex, orders her to complete a weekly questionaire, rating each show. But Akiko learns more than just recipes from Jane's programmes.
In one parallel year, the lives of two women at opposite ends of the earth are brought together in an unforgettable novel about meat, TV and personal crisis.