This work investigates how queer women in contemporary urban China navigate social, familial, and political structures to construct identities within a rapidly changing society. Elisabeth L. Engebretsen, an anthropologist specializing in gender and sexuality, utilizes extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Beijing to examine the intersection of traditional cultural expectations and modern queer existence. The book argues that these women employ strategic negotiations to balance personal desires with the demands of heteronormative social institutions.

Scholars in the field of Asian studies and gender theory frequently cite this text as a foundational ethnographic study of non-normative sexualities in China. Readers often note the academic rigor and the nuanced, sensitive approach the author takes toward her subjects' lived experiences.