In this long-awaited new book by the "stunning" Dao Strom, four tales of love and desire reveal the complications of living in a modern global village In this beautifully written, psychologically astute examination of the rites of female passage, the acclaimed Dao Strom takes us from girlhood to young womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood. Told in four sections, each story introduces us to a compelling young woman and the questions before her, set against the jumble and noise of America today. In this elegant rendering of the rites of passage, we meet four unique young women: Mary, a film student in college who is full of yearning but finds herself confounded by the casual give-and-take of the people around her; Darcy, a twenty-something musician, who must confront the dark and unknown in the form of a naked stranger who repeatedly breaks into her ramshackle sublet; Leena, aged thirty, isolated and alone after having been transplanted from Vietnam to Texas through marriage to an American businessman; And finally, Sage, a new mother in her early thirties who finds herself, while on a road trip with her four-year-old boy and his father, entertaining thoughts of her son's preschool teacher. With both shrewd insight into the moral perils of contemporary life and unwavering compassion for the missteps we make along the way, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys is a major accomplishment from an exciting new talent.