Summary

Chapter 1 – It is 1965. Stillwater College in Virginia is known for its beautiful scenery, lake, and English professor Lee Fleming, a famous poet. Seventeen-year-old Peggy Villaincourt is born north of Richmond to an Episcopal priest who manages a girls’ boarding school, and his wife, who serves as secretary and counselor for the girls. Peggy, ever since she was a child, believed she should have been a boy. She remembers how her only real friend was Miss Miller, the gym teacher, who told Peggy she was not meant to be a girl. She remembers how her desire to join the army got her called a “thespian”, which in turn led her to pay attention to the thespians at school – fat girls and boys with scarves. She also remembers how the actor kids corrected her and called her and Miss Miller “lesbians”, leading to Miss Miller being...