Katie Barclay's historical study examines how kissing has functioned as both a public and private gesture across European history, revealing meanings that shifted radically over centuries. In medieval times, the ritual kiss sealed diplomatic treaties and feudal oaths, rooted in beliefs that breath carried the human spirit; by contrast, foot-kissing served as a symbol of submission and hierarchy. The gesture carried such weight that churches eventually introduced alternative objects to kiss rather than require nobles to embrace their servants. By the fifteenth century, English custom involved greeting virtually everyone—regardless of gender—with lips, yet this practice vanished entirely over subsequent generations, replaced by handshakes among men. The book traces how lip-kissing gradually retreated from public life and became almost exclusively tied to romantic love and intimacy by the nineteenth century, whilst simultaneous twentieth-century anxieties about health and proper parenting sparked debates over whether kissing children was wise.