No parent is prepared for the moment when her daughter comes out to her--not as a lesbian, but as a person whose physical gender is out-of-keeping with his emotional and psychological gender-identity. In Michelle Alfano's intimate memoir, she recounts the entire story of her experience of the mother of a transgendered child. The central metaphor tells the story: when her perfect daughter was a child, Michelle and her husband bought a kit to make a beautiful dollhouse. Michelle imagined making the curtains, buying the furniture, and the time she and her daughter would spend together constructing the perfect fantasy house. But that, it turned out, was just what this was: a fantasy. Her daughter expressed no interest in such a girlish pursuit. Over the following years, Michelle and Rob had an education in the subject of parenting a transitioning child--what pronouns to use, how to disclose the information to friends, family, school. How to deal with the reactions--some of them surprising in a good way, some of them disappointing.