Being there for her family is the most important thing to Jessamine Monet. And her family is complicated. Her twin brother Joel has a secret boyfriend, and her transgender cousin Solange is flourishing, despite the disapproval of Solange's dying mother. Yet Jessamine doesn't mind being caught up in family drama. Being busy keeps the water at bay - the water of memories, of Katrina, of past trauma. So when Tennessee Williams - a rich white boy named after the writer - asks her out, she hesitantly says yes.

He'll be like a library book, she figures, something to read and return. Falling for him is another burden she can't afford to carry. Tennessee has always lived his life at the mercy of his mum's destructive creativity and his dad's hypermasculine expectations. Jessamine's caring and aloof nature is a surprisingly welcome distraction. While she fights her attraction to him, Tennessee is pulled into her inner family circle and develops a friendship with Joel's boyfriend, Saint Baptist