In the remote highlands of the Georgian Republic, a community of Khevsur people once expressed sexuality and romance in ways that appeared to be highly paradoxical. On the one hand, these practices were romantic, but could never lead to marriage. On the other hand, they were sexual, but didn't correspond to what North Americans, or most other Georgians, would have called sex.<p></p><p>These Khevsur practices disappeared completely by the mid-twentieth century, but even after they had died out they became a Georgian obsession, stoking the national imagination and leaving a long trail of poems, scandals, novels, films, and internet chatter behind them. In this fascinating ethnography, Manning recreates the story of how the private, secretive practices of young people in a corner of Georgia became a matter of national interest, concern, and fantasy.</p>