In 1986, ten-year-old Tate Millikin is forced to spend a lonely summer witnessing the breakup of his parents' marriage. Tate eventually befriends his new next-door neighbors - recently retired English professor, Edward Bryant and his transgender daughter, Gossamer. Despite his father’s knee-jerk transphobia and his mother’s misplaced protectiveness, Tate forms a deep friendship with fellow misfit Gossamer, that changes his and their family's life.