The story is about a platonic relationship between a heterosexual woman and a gay man and takes place in New York City in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

This leads Mark to attend Nelly's trial, where he is found guilty and sentenced to six months' imprisonment on Welfare Island for his feminine affections and gestures.

[3] Tom Burden: An older gay man and platonic friend who urges Mark to develop his drawing talents.

Palmer Fleming: June's ex-husband whom she witnesses dancing with a scantily clad young man at a Drag Ball.

Harold Grant (Nelly): A 21-year-old, outwardly effeminate African American man and drag queen whose arrest concerns June and Mark.

"[5] According to editor and author Anthony Slide, Strange Brother illustrates the "basic assumption that gay characters in literature must come to a tragic end.

Ben Duncan's perspective was published in the January 25, 1979 issue of the Gay News newspaper, "The book remains and is welcome now, as a monument of good reporting.

"[7] Susan Stryker, a scholar, notes that "[Blair Niles] treats Manhattan's homosexual subculture much the same way she does any other exotic locale.

"[1] Again, Slide notes that Niles' anthropological approach to documenting homosexuality as well as the Harlem Negro in Strange Brother "is fascinating to a modern readership.

Additionally the psychological history from childhood to adulthood is canvassed, including commitments, identifying with homosexual literature, guilt, solitude, sadness, blackmail and suicide.