The novel begins with Joss Moody’s wife, Millie, being harassed by the media about the recent death of her husband, famed jazz trumpeter Joss Moody. She is obviously heartbroken, and eager to get away from the limelight. She drives up to their holiday home in Torr, Scotland, to grieve by herself. She reminisces on the times she had there with Joss, and as a child when she was fearless, climbing cliffs and running down hills.
She recalls the moment in 1955 when she and Joss first met at a blood bank. His skin, the color of "Highland Toffee," and his tight, black curls instantly captivated her. She questions, "how could I have known then?" She explains how they went to Lauder’s bar and then courted for three months. As a young woman, Millie was extremely attracted to Joss and eager to have sexual relations with him. After a particularly intense jazz performance, Millie invited Joss home. It is at this point that he undressed, and unwrapped bandages to reveal two breasts.
Millie goes for a walk in Torr by the coast and for breakfast at their usual café. Mrs. Dalasso asks after Mr. Moody, and Millie has to explain he is dead. She recalls their wedding. Her mother was originally unsupportive of Joss because he was black and Millie is white. Eventually, she overcame her antipathy and attended the wedding with Millie’s three brothers. The wedding was a jolly affair with lots of jazz and dancing.
Millie feels as if she has lost her sense of gravity since Joss’s death, especially as she ruminates on Joss’s successful jazz career that included many albums.
Millie’s memories move on in their marriage to when she began to crave a child. Joss was extremely upset when Millie announced she wanted a child, and implicitly blamed Joss for not being able to give her one. He suggested she get pregnant by another man, but she refused. He later suggested that they adopt. Back in the present, Millie burns a letter from journalist Sophie Stones asking permission to interview her and her son, Colman.
The chapter switches to the Doctor’s perspective. It shows her beginning to fill out the death certificate, and then stopping when she examines Joss. She sees his breasts, and crosses out "Male" on the certificate. She writes "Female" in large red letters. She tells Millie to take the certificate to the registrar.
There is a section dedicated to Colman Moody, explaining the pressures he felt growing up as the son of Joss Moody, the incredibly successful musician. He explains that Joss never hit him, and his parents never kept too many tabs on him.
He has now discovered that Joss was transgender, and is extremely angry about it, wondering how his parents got married, or how they could have adopted him. He recalls his adoption details, how Joss and Millie were lucky to get him, a baby of color. He explains how his previous name was William Dunsmore, and wonders what he would have been like if adopted by a different family. He explains how he found out (the funeral director told Colman) and he emphasizes that he is not homosexual, obviously trying to prove his own sexuality. He questions how Joss physically functioned, whether he menstruated when he was younger. He recalls the funeral, and how he felt more comfortable with his dad dressed: "Dead, but normal."
Joss had left Colman a letter to be opened after his death, but Colman refuses to read it for a long time, assuming it is full of excuses.
The perspective changes to the registrar, Mohammed Nassar Sharif. He is gentle and always takes time to write out the death certificate neatly. He writes out this death certificate, ticking "female" when asked about gender. He is curious, and wants to ask Millie how it worked, how she found him attractive, but he doesn’t ask anything.
Millie receives another letter from Sophie Stones, containing only information that Colman could have provided. Colman has a key to Torr and their London flat, meaning he could reveal all if he wanted to. Millie recalls Joss’s interactions with her mother, remarking that she was a more interesting, fun-loving person when she was with him. Sophie’s letter asks Millie about Joss’s childhood, and she realizes she knows little about it. She knows his name was Josephine, but not anything concerning his habits or experiences.
Millie then recalls the long days when Joss was sick and how he refused to see the doctor. She laments that she didn’t force him to get medical care. She looks at photographs, and is disconsolate that Joss is not with her.
The perspective changes to that of the funeral director, Albert Holding. He has run his funeral business for 25 years, and claims he can tell the personality of the dead. He says that people’s personalities can change right up to the moment they die. When Albert undresses Joss, he discovers his breasts. He looks again at Joss’s face and it has transformed to him, as if suddenly more womanly. Colman comes to see the body, and Albert explains he has female body parts.
Sophie Stones is interviewing Colman. Colman speaks, recalling how Joss had acted when he first brought a girlfriend; he concluded his father was trying to “get” his girlfriends.
Sophie tells Colman to meet her again the next day and bring the letter Joss left for him.
Colman recalls how Joss bought him his first shaving kit, and is scornful. He assumes it was an amusing masculine ritual because Joss got “kicks” out of pretending to be a man.
The next chapter focuses on Sophie. Very quickly we learn that Sophie feels inferior to her sister, and sees this book on Joss as an opportunity to attain wealth and fame. She believes the key to her book is finding out what really made Joss a "transvestite" and printing all the lurid details she can. She reviews her savings, and dreams of all the designer clothes she’ll buy with her profits.
The chapter labelled "Music" is an exploration of the experiences Joss had as a jazz musician. It talks about how music was in his blood, the reactions he got from audiences and how playing his trumpet was a spiritual experience that took him right back to his birth and back to his death. The chapter finishes with an encompassing image of everything that Joss was.
After Joss’s death and the subsequent revelations, Colman lost touch with his friends, walked out on his job as a motorcycle courier, and spent his time watching TV and eating cereal. He currently fantasizes about intercourse with Sophie Stone, exaggerating the size and capabilities of his penis to affirm his own masculinity.
Joss meets with Sophie again, and she sets out a detailed plan on how to find out more about Joss, including his birth certificate and interviews of people that knew him. She tells Colman that she will come with him to Glasgow to find the information, and that she has discovered Joss’s mother is still alive.
The perspective changes to Big Red McCall, a drummer that worked very closely with Joss as a musician and friend. Sophie calls and asks him about Moody, and he refuses to give her any information, advising her to drop it before she upsets Millie. He cries over the loss, having cared very much for his late friend.
Millie opens a third letter from Sophie Stones, realizing she is now being “tortured” by her. She knows that none of their close friends would betray Joss, but she knows that others will talk for money.
The next chapter, “Letters,” is from a newspaper that people have written into, and comments from fans stating that only Joss’s music mattered.
Colman is answering more of Sophie’s questions, and realizes he needs to talk, not just for the money. He recalls how Joss had been a harsh father to his teenage self, and how he was an “animal” in his teen years. He was sullen, ungrateful, impolite and stayed out until 4 am at the police station once. Colman also recalls when he asked his father about sex, with intimate questions about affairs, and how often he and Millie had sex. Colman is fixated on the idea that his father did not own a penis.
The Moodys’ old housekeeper, Maggie, liked both Joss and Millie very much. When Sophie contacts her, she agrees to speak to her. She tells Sophie that she once saw Joss writing a letter that said "Dear Mum," even though he said she had died a long time ago. When Sophie asks if she still has the keys to their house, Maggie lies and says no. Sophie pays her £500 and Maggie regrets talking to her.
Colman is going to Glasgow with Sophie. He is currently in debt at his Tottenham flat, and dreams of the money from the book so he can go somewhere where people have never heard of Joss Moody. He walks to the station, looking at barbers and homeless men and recalling his parents’ opinions on all he encounters. As Colman gets the train, he recalls how it is difficult to travel as a black man, as people are constantly finding quarrels with what he is doing. He wonders how he’ll approach all the people Joss used to know, and considers telling Sophie he can’t do it. He sees a man that looks like Joss, and follows him through the train, but it is not his father.
Millie reminisces fondly about her Sundays with Joss, her favorite day. First they made love, then they read the newspapers together. Colman, younger in this flashback, regularly ruined their brunch. Joss died on a Sunday, and she remembers everything about that too. She knew that both Joss’s spirit and body were weary, so she told him it was okay to go. Once he died, she wrapped the bandages around him and changed his pajamas before phoning the undertaker.
Back in the present, Millie now understands that she feels grief the way every widow does. Now, she decides, she is ready for the reporters.
Colman and Sophie have dinner together in a hotel, and Colman begins to desperately miss his father. Sophie thinks about Colman sexually, and recalls how he began to get worked up about the book. It is clear Colman is now having doubts about exposing his father. Colman decides he will go visit Joss’s mother without Sophie the next day.
Edith Moore lives in an old age retirement village, but is infinitely annoyed by the warden treating her as a clueless old lady. She tries to retain as much independence as she can. She recalls last time Josephine came to visit her and brought her a curry to eat, which baffled Edith.
Colman goes to visit Edith. She is out shopping at the local store, as she detests supermarkets and the gluttony they encourage. When she returns, Colman says she is a friend of Josephine’s. Edith makes him a ham sandwich.
Sophie Stones goes shopping. As she tries clothes on in the changing rooms, she is prompted to wonder who bought Joss’s clothes for him. She returns to the hotel and is agitated to see Colman isn’t there yet. She leaves a message for him and gets ready for dinner, expecting him to show up and join her. At 8:15 pm she wants to go to bed, but waits up for him.
A small chapter is dedicated to Millie recalling how Joss would flatten his breasts with bandages. The process was integral to both their lives, and Millie once slept with bandages under her pillow.
Colman returns to the hotel at 9 pm with a photo of Josephine when she was younger; now he can see the feminine resemblance in his father’s face. He avoids Sophie at the hotel, as if deciding not to collaborate on the book anymore.
Sophie contacts an old school friend of Josephine’s, May Hart. Sophie shows May a picture of Josephine/Joss as a musician, and May is shocked. She recalls how much love she had for Josephine as a child, and recalls when she and May had practiced kissing together.
Colman decides to tell Sophie he does not want to work with her anymore. The next thing he remembers is waking up next to Sophie at 4 am, and he quickly leaves. When Sophie wakes up, she thinks over ideas for a book entirely from Colman’s perspective, and decides to propose the idea to him the next day over dinner. She indulges her suspicions of Joss, thinking she knows why he was transgender: Joss got a kick out of pretending to be a man when he was really a woman.
Colman takes a bus to Kepper, and opens the letter that Joss left for him.
Joss writes to his son of his own father coming from Africa to Scotland and becoming a servant and then working on his own. He acknowledges that they all have different names, and tells his son that he has left all of his writings and papers to him. Now Colman is in charge of Joss and can do what he will with his legacy.
