In 1989, Heidi Holland gives an art history lecture in a lecture hall at Columbia University about three unsung women painters throughout history, showing slides as she talks about their work: Sofonisba Anguissola, who was considered in her time to be as good a portraitist as Titian; Clara Peeters, whose geometric still-life paintings were ahead of their time; and Lily Martin Spencer, an American genre painter. Spencer’s “We Both Must Fade” shows a woman in a lovely dress amid still-life objects that are “reminders of mortality and time passing” (161). Heidi gives tips on how to remember each painting for the upcoming midterm, describing Spencer’s painting as reminding her of dressing up for high school dances and standing awkwardly, “a fading rose” unsure of what to do but “waiting to see what might happen” (161).

It’s 1965, and Heidi and Susan Johnston are 16, attending a high school dance in Chicago. They sing along to “The Shoop Shoop Song,” and Susan excitedly points out a cute guy who can “twist and smoke at the same time” (162). Susan worries frantically that they might look like they want only to cluster with each other, which might be off-putting for boys, or that they might seem desperate.