The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Peters, Torrey. Detransition, Baby. Serpent’s Tail, 2021.

Peters’ novel is divided into 11 chapters and narrated in the third person. The narration shifts between the past and present tenses. The majority of the novel takes place in New York City.

In Chapter 1, Ames contacts his ex-girlfriend, Reese, a transgender woman, to tell her that he has impregnated his current lover and boss, a cisgender woman named Katrina. While in a relationship with Reese, Ames lived as a trans woman named Amy, but later detransitioned. When Ames tells Katrina about his past as a woman, she reacts badly, feeling that he was dishonest with her. Seeking a way around his discomfort with traditional parenting, Ames proposes to Reese, who wants a child, that she co-mother the baby with Katrina. Reese agrees, but Ames has yet to ask Katrina about the arrangement.

Chapter 2 begins by detailing Reese’s past relationship with an abusive man named Stanley. At the time Reese met Amy, she was still living with Stanley. Amy reminded Reese of a boy she had dated previously named Sebastian, a foreign exchange student with whom she experienced a bad breakup. Shortly after meeting Amy, Reese moved in with her.

Most of Chapter 3 takes place over the course of a business trip Ames and Katrina take to Chicago. During the trip, Ames tells Katrina about his past as a trans woman in more detail and suggests the arrangement with Reese, explaining that it would be a way of parenting that would allow him to stay in touch with the trans community. Katrina is at first angered by the suggestion, but after speaking with her mother, Maya, she agrees to consider it.

Chapter 4 is told from Amy’s perspective, at first showing the beginning of her relationship with Reese. The narration details Amy’s past, including her experiences losing her virginity in high school to a girl named Delia and exploring cross-dressing with a character named Patrick. Amy found it difficult to handle the vulnerability she felt with Reese, as she had learned to shut down her emotions as a coping mechanism.

In Chapter 5, Reese, Ames, and Katrina attend the GLAAD Media Awards and discuss the possibility of their co-parenting arrangement with all of them together for the first time. Reese and Katrina argue about the legitimacy of their feelings regarding motherhood and become emotional, but also seem to like and understand each other. Ames later tells Reese that he thinks the meeting went well.

Chapter 6 returns to Reese and Amy’s relationship, at a point when Reese began to see Stanley again without Amy’s knowledge. She confessed that she had been seeing Stanley after she and Amy attended an event in a church, where they had gone to learn about the possibility of adopting a child.

In Chapter 7, Reese is at the funeral of a fellow trans girl, Tammi, who died in a car accident. Katrina calls Reese and asks to talk to her, saying that she needs advice regarding Ames. They meet later, and Katrina explains that as a result of information she divulged on her business trip with Ames while she was drunk and upset, a rumor has begun at the agency where the two of them work that Ames is a trans man. Reese is amused by this. Katrina invites Reese to come along to an ultrasound appointment with her.

Chapter 8 recounts the end of Reese and Amy’s relationship. Amy learned that Reese was still seeing Stanley after her initial confession, and followed the two to a park where she confronted them. Stanley physically fought both women, leaving Amy injured. After this encounter, Amy began to feel a growing need to embrace masculinity, and eventually told Reese she had applied for a job under a male name. Reese left her not long after this.

Chapter 9 follows Reese and Katrina’s evolving relationship as they attempt to put aside their differences and look to the future together. At Maya’s suggestion, they go to a store to open a baby registry and pick out items. They argue over whether or not to buy a crib: Reese thinks babies should sleep in bed with their parents, while Katrina is afraid of rolling over on the baby. Reese ultimately agrees to the crib, thinking that this situation is indicative of how Katrina will always have the final say. However, she notices later that Katrina has removed the crib from the registry.

In Chapter 10, Reese attends a doTERRA essential oils party thrown by a friend of Katrina’s. There she meets Diana, another friend of Katrina’s who, unbeknownst to Reese, is the wife of Garrett, a man Reese has been having an affair with. When Garrett comes to pick up Diana and Reese explains her relationship with him to Katrina, Katrina becomes upset, partly because she knows that Garrett contracted HIV from another trans woman. Reese later writes an angry email to Katrina in which she accuses her of being homophobic and wanting to embrace the beneficial parts of queerness while rejecting the rest.

In Chapter 11, Ames tells Katrina that he can commit to parenting without Reese but he may someday decide to live as a woman again. He soon receives word that Reese is the hospital, having attempted suicide. Reese had not really been trying to kill herself, but had gone into the water at a local beach to lower her body temperature, a therapeutic technique she believed might help her deal with feelings of distress, and onlookers had believed she was drowning. Katrina admits that her reaction to Reese’s affair was homophobic, and Reese apologizes for having sent the email. Katrina schedules an abortion and invites Reese and Ames to come with her. Before the appointment, Reese asks if Katrina can wait on the abortion, but Katrina says that she cannot deal with the uncertainty. The novel ends with the three characters sitting together at Katrina’s apartment. It is unclear whether Katrina will end her pregnancy.