Larsen discusses race, gender and class in the quick, compelling story of two women's complicated and encumbered relationship. Using Irene's unreliable perspective, Larsen portrays the ways race and gender can limit women, alter their self perception, and drive them apart from each other - one can sympathise with and criticise both women in the ways they have chosen to live, and must question how much of their lives are truly in their control. Empathy, selfishness, ignorance, independence: which of these can these women afford to have, must they utilise to survive, what must they prioritise to keep moving forward? Larsen draws attention to these questions to create a layered and nuanced portrayal of the female condition.

She couldn't have had an entirely serene life. And yet she hadn't the air of a woman whose life had been touched by uncertainty or suffering. Pain, fear and grief were things that left their mark on people. Even love, that exquisite, torturing emotion, left its subtle traces on the countenance.