In the titular story, young black Yale University freshman Dina joins a series of orientation games that are meant to help students bond.

In a game where students have to answer what inanimate object they would like to be, Dina says a revolver which leads her to have meetings with university staff and a psychiatrist.

[1][2] The story Speaking in Tongues is about a 14-year-old named Tia who runs away from her great-aunt to try to find her mother who abandoned her.

[1][2] The only male main character, Spurgeon, must deal with a father who bullies him and abandons him in a city in the story The Ant of the Self.

[4] Bomb said, "This set of stories is a pleasure to dive into for the wit, the writing, the characters, and the novel plots, but most of all for the human truth that in the search for self-knowledge, we find we each defy category.