On a family trip to Rome a few years ago, I had the brilliant idea to take my sleep-deprived young daughters to the Vatican. It didn’t go well. “This is boooring!”

Finally we made it to the Sistine Chapel. One of my girls glanced at the image of Adam and God and said, “Why is there only a man?” Then her sister pointed out, “Is that Eve under God’s arm?”

That’s when it hit me. Since antiquity, one story has stood at the center of every conversation about men, women and sexuality in the West. That couple is Adam and Eve. Yet instead of celebrating them, history has blamed them for bringing sin, lust, even death into the world. Adam and Eve — but mostly Eve — are victims of the greatest character assassination ever.

I’ve spent the last few years traveling in the footsteps of history’s maiden couple, from the Garden of Eden in Iraq to John Milton’s London to Mae West’s Hollywood, trying to figure out whether our culture’s first relationship can teach us something about relationships today. To read more from BRUCE FEILER, click here.