[4] Ben-Menahem left school at the age of 15, to study jewelry making at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem.

[5] After her discharge from the army, Ben-Menahem returned to Jerusalem, and made a living from jewel making and writing pulp fiction stories.

– created from the initials of her name), this book was uniquely first in its description of the homosexual and lesbian scene in Israel from first person acquaintance, rather than reporting about it as a problem.

[9] The book consists of anecdotal stories in which the protagonist, a young woman named Yael, tells about her recognition of her lesbian sexuality and her coming out of the closet.

[7] The book was a huge success, but not for its literary qualities: shortly after its publication, the magazine HaOlam HaZeh published an article titled "The Wave of Lesbians in Israel" (Hebrew: גל הלסביות בישראל),[10] as part of that issue's sensational back cover story, titled "Special Report: The Lesbian Problem in Israel (Hebrew: "דו״ח מיוחד: הבעיה הלסבית בישראל"),[11] in which it included a few nit-picked erotic paragraphs from the book.

The book is written as a chronological diary, spanning 20 years of Hava's life, beginning in her adolescence in 1938, up to 1958, when she is a mother, dying of cancer.