It tells the story of 17-year-old transgender student J, who is transitioning during his senior year in high school in New York City, and struggles to find acceptance with his peers and his parents.

His angst reaches a head when he drunkenly kisses his best friend Melissa after a party, who promptly ends their friendship and tells him to stay away from her.

After losing his closest friend, J decides to stop going to school and instead researches "female-to-male" transgender people on the internet.

That same night, at his parents' anniversary party, J finds out that Carolina has been lying to his father, telling him that J was away at a computer camp in DC.

The novel ends with J opening a letter addressed to "Mr. Silver," where he finds out he has been accepted to a photography program in upstate New York for the fall semester.

Cathi McCrae, in the September 2011 issue of digital magazine Youth Today, reviewed the book and states that "Beam's novel brings us intensely into J's reality, from his stark sense of alienation to his emerging self-awareness within a new body and community.

"[4] In Volume 57 of School Library Journal, Diane Tuccillo praised the book by stating that "the story is believable and effective due to insightful situations, realistic language, and convincing dialogue.