It does not have a conventional linear narrative, but instead proceeds episodically, loops back almost to its starting-point, and finishes not on a revelation but a suspension.
The childhood that Butler depicts [in Adulthood Rites] can serve as a blueprint for how we might better love and respect trans children.[...] Like the resisters who think they are saving Akin by pulling things out of his mouth, or the Oankali who insist that the contradiction in humanity means allowing the resisters to reproduce would be a form of cruelty, when we place children on pre-determined paths and invalidate their own experiences of their bodies, minds, and even time itself, we cause substantial harm. To love trans children, we must understand their experiences on their terms...