Sorrel grew up with professor parents, where carob was dessert, reading passages of Canadian poetry aloud was entertainment, and canoeing was the only sport encouraged. No one really noticed the studious Sorrel until she turned seventeen, when late puberty suddenly transformed her into a hot dork. Boys wanted her and girls loathed her, and all at once Sorrel discovered the joys of sexuality and the pain of social rejection.
Sorrel enters college as a self-proclaimed loser with no female friends, but then she meets Maggie. Maggie's unwavering friendship helps her shed her inhibitions and become more truly herself. The two women grow older, but when Maggie is diagnosed with cancer, Sorrel must choose between raw feeling and devotion.