This book has been on my radar for a while, because I saw it on a lot of lists of books by nonbinary authors, or fantasy book with trans characters, good historical queer fantasy and so on. It begins in the city of Chengbee, the capital city of an empire controlled by The Protectorate, a dictator willing to put down riots with violence. The Protectorate owes a debt to the Head Abbot of the monastery of the city for a political favor. The Head Abbot requests that one of her children come study at the monastery, intending to teach the child and possibly educate them to be a future head abbot. Instead of giving him one of her grown children, the Protectorate gets pregnant planning to give the Abbot a new infant instead. This plan goes awry from the start when she unexpectedly has twins. The story follows these two children, who begin their education at age six. The story gives us glimpses of their lives at different ages, skipping years at a time in between. I really enjoyed the tension filled but profound relationship between the siblings Mokoya and Akeha and the gender confirmation rituals of this world. I wondered however about the decision to format the book almost like a series of short stories. Why not just flesh it out into a full length novel instead? Despite this, I definitely plan to keep reading the series, I want to see more from this author.