At birth, Peter Huang is given the Chinese name juan chaun, meaning powerful king. He is the exalted only son in a family of daughters, the one who will finally fulfill his father's dreams of Western masculinity. But Peter has different dreams: he knows that he is a girl. Peter and his sisterselegant Adele, shrewd Helen and Bonnie the bon vivantgrow up in a house of many secrets, then escape the confines of small-town Ontario and spread from Montreal to California to Berlin. Peter's own journey is obstructed by playground bullies, masochistic lovers, Christian ex-gays and the ever-present shadow of his father.

Various publishers.