Told through the narration of Sandy Stone, who acts as a sort of tour guide, the film documents the lives of a group of transgender individuals, and one intersex individual, living in San Francisco, California. The narration provided by Stone is cut with interviews that develop and illustrate the ideas and themes she discusses in her vignettes. The film is shot on location in San Francisco, with the interviews of the subjects taking place in their natural settings and surroundings including their homes, offices, and the streets of San Francisco. The film explains, through the lives of its subjects, both the social and practical changes and decisions necessary for them to endure in order to live their lives as they see fit on the edge of traditional gender roles. The idea of gender neutrality is promoted throughout the film. Gender is not a characteristic that should be used to define a person. The film also shows how the subjects all interact with one another in the transgender subculture of San Francisco.
Dans un petit village du Zimbabwe, deux femmes tombent amoureuses l'une de l'autre. Nongoma est célibataire, mais sa voisine Tsisti est mariée. De plus, l'homosexualité est taboue dans leur société. Quand leur relation est découverte, Nongoma part pour la ville. Deux ans après, elles se retrouvent par hasard. Elles décident alors de vivre ensemble dans un village où personne ne les connaît.
The film begins in the spring and documents Eads' life through the following winter. Eads falls in love with Lola, a transgender woman. He spends those remaining warm days in the company of his "chosen family": Maxwell, Cas, and "the rest". That summer, his mother and father drive ten hours to visit Robert, who is still their daughter in their eyes. Later that year, Eads makes his last appearance at the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, a prominent transgender gathering. Already feeling ill, he addresses a crowd of 500 and takes Lola to what is for them a prom that never was. Shortly after the conference, Eads dies in a nursing home with his chosen family.