After having run away to the big city 15 years earlier, Stephanie returns home to the bleak rural land of her childhood in order to care for her dying mother. Overwhelmed by the emotions evoked by memories of her childhood, Stephanie's past affects her deeply. When she lived in this oppressive landscape as a youth, Stephanie was a boy who had trouble dealing with the early death of a beloved sister.
After moving away, Stephanie had the operation that allowed her to live as a woman. Living in the city, she made her living as a streetwalker, making for a rough go of it.
Stephanie shares her bed and her life with two young men named Mikhail and Jamel. Mikhail is a Russian living in a country where he barely speaks the language. Agonized by images of a war where he served as a soldier, the young man is living hand-to-mouth in the most illegal of ways. Meanwhile, Jamel is a tough-acting Arab who is able to survive as a prostitute. He dreams of the days when he was still at home with his family, and dreads sleeping alone.
Although the three are misfits with a tentative future, together, they just click. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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