Allegra Elsom is caught in the middle. Some days she’s eleven, and others she feels closer to nineteen. Some days she knows too much, and others she feels hopelessly naive. Some days she is split in three, torn between conflicting loyalties to her grandmothers, Matilde and Joy, and her father, Rick—none of whom can stand to be in a room together since the decades-old tragedy that hit their family like a wrecking ball.

Allegra struggles to make peace in her family and navigate the social gauntlet at school while asking bigger questions about her place in the world: What does it mean to be “liberated”? What is it about “becoming a woman” that earns her a slap in the face? What does it mean to do the right thing, when everyone around her defines it differently?

As the feminist movement reshapes her Sydney suburb, Allegra makes her own path—discovering firsthand the incredible ways that women can support each other, and finding strength within herself to stand up to the people she loves.