Sisters of Learned Men is an account of the lives of eight women in Sweden in the 18th century. The women are historical and chosen because their brothers were educated and successful. Facts about the women have been found in documents of many kinds, preserved since that time in various archives and libraries. The women were subject to certain common laws and customs, but met different fates in completely different environments: a priest's daughter in Piteå and Northern Ostrobothnia, three sisters in Åmål with links to the town's government and to the timber and iron trade, an academic's wife in Lund, and three noble sisters who grew up in Stockholm but were married and lived on small farms on the Uppsala plain. Since events in the lives of other women, such as their daughters and servants, have also been woven into the narrative, the stories together constitute a broad portrayal of women's conditions during this period. There are dramatic, comic, moving and tragic elements, and all are true. The manuscript is accompanied by 150 photographs of environments, objects and people, illustrating both the individual stories and the general styles of the period.