Michael's shadow twin - Small - was his fetus in fetu before being removed and preserved in a specimen jar at the medical school. Michael and his single mother keep the rest of the world at bay while they hold the spirit of Small close - she homeschools Michael, moves house every six months, and at restaurants she asks for a table for three, "but there'll only be the two of us eating." When Michael turns sixteen, he meets a household of men caring for Quin, dying of AIDS. Michael is drawn ever more deeply out of his lifelong conversation with his mother and Small and into the far more tangible world he finds at the house down the street with Quin, Kit, Gerard, and the others... and discovers some unexpected things about himself in the process.