Dorothy Allison gives voice to issues dear to her: poverty, working-class life, domestic violence, feminism and women's relationships, the contemporary South, and gay/lesbian life. The interviews detail Allison's working-class background in Greenville, South Carolina, as the daughter of a waitress. Allison discusses her upbringing, her work (novels, short stories, essays, poetry) and her active participation in the women's movement of the 1970s.