In Rachel & Leah, Orson Scott Card paints vivid portraits of four celebrated women—Laban's daughters, Rachel and Leah; Bilhah, the orphaned servant; and Zilpah, an ambitious member of Laban's household. Into the desert camp comes Jacob, a handsome and charismatic kinsman who is clearly destined to be Rachel's husband. But that doesn't prevent the other woman from vying for his attention.

Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how these women change in relationship to each other and how they are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings with him. Based on the abbreviated sketches in the book of Genesis, the author composes a brilliant and altogether believable personality for each of these complex women, showing how God touched their lives in ways that will seem familiar to many readers today.