The year is 1993, and a young Carlotta Mercedes becomes in her cousin's robbery of a liquor store. During the robbery, the store's clerk gets shot and permanently disabled. As a result of her involvement in the robbery, Carlotta was sentenced to between 12 and 22 years in prison. Carlotta is ultimately sent to a men's prison, because she was assigned the male sex at birth. However, during her nearly two-decade long stint in a New York jail, she comes out as a trans woman.
The people in prison, however, refuse to acknowledge that she is a trans woman. Additionally, they refuse to facilitate her transfer to a female prison. To make matters worse, prisoners and guards also rape her throughout her time in prison. For much of her time in prison, Carlotta is sent to solitary confinement, which further traumatizes her. One redeeming feature of her time in prison is her relationship with a fellow inmate, named Frenzy.
Eventually, after another parole board hearing, Carlotta is released from prison after spending nearly two decades there. She leaves prison and returns home to New York City to visit her family. Carlotta has a son named Ibe, who she hadn't seen since he was nine. However, when she returned home to Brooklyn, she is shocked to see how much the city has changed and gentrified. When she returns home, Carlotta finds that many people in her family struggle to accept her new identity. Not only that, her mother struggles with dementia, complicating their relationship.
While home, Carlotta tries to avoid alcohol, which got her put into prison in the first place. She also tries to reconnect with many of her friends, all of whom she had lost touch with while in jail. She also tries to get a job as a driver, all while trying to lead a positive life in line with the law. But she can't. She shoplifts a dress, crashes her car, and fights several people. She narrowly avoids getting arrested in each of those cases and going back to jail.
Carlotta's attempts to avoid alcohol fail and her probation officer instructs her to complete a drug test. She fails. She goes to Coney Island with her family, resigned to the fact that she will be going back to prison. The novel ends with her going back home once again, having served her prison sentence out in full.
