In this culture, women are trained for good wives since girlhood. A young man's family may negotiate with a young girl's family about having her over to "take care of the house," meaning pre-marriage trial. It would be better if the young man's parents have prepared a house for him. A man NEVER does housework. He must work outside the household. If by any chance his wife can't work for a while, he must have his mother or female relatives over to help, if he can't employ a female servant. Or else the cooking, washing, babysitting, etc., will not be taken care of.
Say a man loves a girl. She is attractive but she loves someone else, and is expecting that one's family to propose to have her over. The said man's parents then secure for him another girl, one he doesn't love but doesn't dislike either. They turn out to be great after marriage. Many years later the young man's mother dies, so his wife has to take care of two households. Then she becomes very ill. As the family don't have any close-by relatives, they at first seek help from their female neighbors, and then hire some cheap servants paid by the hour. But at last this is not sustainable and the wife is not likely to recover, so the father suggests to the son that he marries again, which is very normal in that culture. But then the son loves his wife. He loves her so much that he doesn't even want to marry another after her death, not to mention that she's still alive. Then the girl from his youth, his first love, comes into his life ...
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