The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Ali, Monica. Love Marriage. Scribner, May 3, 2022. Kindle.

In the novel Love Marriage by Monica Ali, Yasmin Ghorami always followed the rules. She had been her parents’ obedient daughter and had become a doctor, just like her father encouraged her to be. She was engaged to be married to a doctor, Joe Sangster. Yasmin’s foremost fear was that her parents would embarrass her when they went to meet Joe’s mother. Suddenly, however, Yasmin’s life began to fall apart as a result of things beyond her control.

Four years prior to the current setting, Yasmin’s younger brother, Arif, was flagged because he was studying the Muslim religion for a research paper. The police raided and searched the family’s home. As a result, Arif became angry with everyone and blamed his inability to get a job on Islamophobia. The stress over Arif’s inability to find a job his father approved of reached a breaking point just as Yasmin and Joe decided to get married. Shaokat finally gave Arif an ultimatum, go back to school for a better degree, get a job, or find another place to live.

The arguments between Arif and Shaokat became more and more heated to the point that Yasmin feared one of them would hurt the other. When Arif came to pack his things and move out, Yasmin begged him to concentrate on himself and try to be the sort of person his father wanted him to be. Arif admitted he could not do that because he had to care for his girlfriend Lucy and the baby. Yasmin feared what the news that Arif had gotten Lucy pregnant out of wedlock would do to her family, especially her wedding plans. Yasmin was afraid that she would need to take charge of giving the news to her family because she did not believe that Arif would be able to do so responsibly.

Yasmin was shocked when she learned that Arif had already told their mother about the baby. She was even more shocked when she came home one day to find Lucy and Arif having tea with her mother. They planned for Lucy and Arif to leave before Shaokat arrived home from work. Unfortunately, Shaokat came home early that day. He was polite to Lucy and answered her questions about her pregnancy, but he asked to speak to Arif alone. The women could hear angry voices coming from the room where Arif and Shaokat were talking. When Arif returned, he had a cut on his forehead and an oncoming black eye.

After Arif and Lucy were gone, Shaokat claimed Arif had fallen against a desk when Shaokat defended himself against Arif’s attack. He told Yasmin and Anisah, his wife, that Arif was no longer welcome in their house. When Anisah asked if he would also turn his back on his granddaughter, Shaokat replied that he had no granddaughter. Anisah announced that if Arif and his daughter were not welcome there, she was not staying there either. Yasmin did not expect her mother to leave and was surprised when she found a note announcing that Anisah would be staying with Harriet, Joe’s mother.

Meanwhile, Yasmin was distressed because she learned that Joe had cheated on her. She was unaware that he was attending counseling to deal with a sex addiction that stemmed from an unhealthy relationship with his mother. Joe admitted to Yasmin that he cheated on her. Yasmin believed they had put it in the past. Yasmin was not prepared when Pepperdine, the senior consultant, asked her to go for a drink with him. They wound up at his house, having sex. Yasmin sought Pepperdine out several times after that, but she did not tell Joe what she had done.

Anisah and Shaokat had still not made amends by the time Lucy's and Arif’s baby was born. Shaokat did not come to the hospital to see baby Coco and refused to look at the pictures Yasmin tried to show him. Yasmin tried to force Harriet to tell her mother it was time to go home, but Harriet explained to Yasmin that Anisah had some issues she needed to work through before she left.

When Coco was only a few weeks old, she became very sick. This time, Shaokat, a doctor, came to the hospital when he was called. He spent days collecting information from the doctors in charge and trying to determine what was wrong with the baby. Yasmin sensed that he believed he needed to heal Coco to prove himself to his son and wife. Shaokat did come up with a diagnosis, Coco had Kawasaki disease, and the baby was healed.

Yasmin remained distressed because even though she had seen her parents make amends at the hospital, her mother still refused to return home. Weeks later, Anisah finally decided she was ready to return, but she insisted that Yasmin sit and listen to the real story of how she and Shaokat came to be married.

Yasmin believed that her parents’ love story was a romance in which a poor boy fell in love with a rich girl. Her parents had given Shaokat a chance, and he had proven himself to them by studying to be a doctor. The real story that Anisah told was much different. Anisah had gone out walking alone after dark even though it was forbidden. She was raped by two men.

Anisah’s family intended to keep the rape a secret so that Anisah would still be able to marry well. Anisah, however, had gotten the names of the men who raped her and had gone to the police department. Her parents wound up having to pay off the men who raped Anisah to keep them from ruining her father’s business. Shaokat was offered to Anisah’s father by his professor friend as a way to end the dilemma surrounding Anisah. Since she had been raped, no respectable man would marry her. If she married Shaokat, she would be taken care of and Shaokat would have the opportunity to study medicine and become a doctor. Shaokat accepted the deal when it was presented to him.

Yasmin learned from her mother’s story that nothing in life was simple. Afterward, Yasmin faced her own problems in life when she met with Joe and told him that she had an affair. She thought it would be best if they call off their engagement. Yasmin’s mother told her that love was always uncertain and that if she and Joe took a break, they might find that they could fall back in love with each other.

Yasmin and Joe decided to remain friends. They wrote letters to update each other on how their lives were going. In one letter, Joe asked Yasmin if she would visit him in Edinburgh, where he had gotten a new job. The prospect thrilled Yasmin, and she felt as if she might be falling in love again.