Set in 1971, assigned by his father to live as male, Larry Benson is the son of a tobacco farmer. Since the age of twelve, testosterone shots every ten days have left Larry powerful, small, and quick to anger—always ready to throw the first punch. And truly uncomfortable in his own skin.

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Now thirty, Larry works on his family’s tobacco farm. He keeps to himself, his rough exterior guarding a deep self-loathing—with one exception: Lily, his childhood best friend, who he is reunited with. Lily, different herself, is open-hearted and unguarded, Lily accepts Larry as he is. Her romantic love offers him a glimpse of peace and the possibility of belonging he’s never known.

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Lily provides unconditional support and a shared understanding of what it feels like to be an outsider, and the free-spirited and fashionable Aug Peg, visiting from California, embraces Larry’s difference with warmth and acceptance.

When a local man insults Lily at a dance, Larry explodes in violence. He finds himself in jail—and suddenly cut off from the hormones that have defined his existence. Larry is forced to confront who he truly is beneath years of shame and denial, and he begins to question the uncompromising bigotry of his small-town rural life.

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As Larry’s body changes and he starts to examine and accept new ways of looking at himself, his father viciously rejects both Larry and his love for Lily.

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One night, a brutal confrontation between Larry and his father leads to a tragic and violent end.

MISTAKE is an unflinching, deeply human portrait of alienation, identity and love.