The "what if" moment in American history crystalized about twenty years ago when scholars published an array of books probing contingent events in world history. They wanted to understand how the history would have turned out differently had the decision makers not made the choices they did. For example, if George Washington had not decided to cross the Delaware River in 1776 to face the formidable Hessian army the American Revolution would have taken a much different course, likely resulting in a crushing defeat for the Continental Army. Or if FDR had not made that fateful decision to shut off access to Japan's oil supply in July 1941 there likely would not have been a Pearl Harbor or maybe even the United States' entry into World War II. Such questions are intriguing to ask, because they allow us to consider that events do not occur outside the boundaries of human choice. Rather, they allow us to see the decisions and actions of people who had "opportunities to choose and act otherwise." If we apply these same counterfactuals to Mormon Apostle Hugh B. Brown's life we would get equally intriguing possibilities. In my address, I will take one contingent event—plural marriage—and consider the choices that Brown had, and made, as he grappled with an issue that came to harm him personally and the church more generally. He was front and center in the church's fight against plural marriage in the 1930s, and later he would be asked to rein in errant missionaries who had been teaching "the principle" to their investigators. Both of these accounts were pivotal moments in Brown's life, and both shaped his ministry, his family life, and perhaps how we remember him today.