Sir Philip and Anna Gordon name their newborn girl Stephen, despite having expected and hoped for a boy.

Seven-year-old Stephen develops an intense romantic obsession with the Gordons' housemaid, Collins.

Stephen witnesses Collins kissing the household footman and throws a pot at him, wounding his head.

Stephen and Sir Philip attend a local hunt together, and Stephen wins her first hunting trophy.

Martin Hallam confesses his love to Stephen in the garden; she stares back at him with terror and repulsion.

During winter, a tree branch falls on Sir Philip while he secures it, fatally crushing his chest.

Sir Philip dies without completing his attempt to tell Anna the truth about Stephen's sexuality.

Stephen rescues the American Angela Crossby from a dog attack and is immediately and powerfully drawn to her.

During Angela's first visit to Morton Hall, Stephen confesses her feelings and kisses Angela as a lover.

Angela hands Stephen's passionate love letter to her husband Ralph, who forwards it directly to Anna.

Anna confronts Stephen about the letter, calls her unnatural, and orders her to leave Morton Hall forever.

While serving as a wartime ambulance driver on the front lines in France, Stephen meets the young Mary Llewellyn.

The Armistice is signed, and Stephen promises a tearful Mary she will not abandon her once the war ends.

Barbara dies of pneumonia, and the following morning Jaime is found dead by her own hand.

Stephen tells Mary she is having an affair with Valérie, driving a devastated Mary to flee to Martin.

Sir Philip and Anna Gordon name their unexpected daughter Stephen, setting her on a lifelong path of defying gender expectations in early twentieth-century England. After a childhood marked by her first heartbreak over the maid Collins and her father's unwavering support, Stephen enters adulthood only to be betrayed by the manipulative Angela Crossby, whose actions lead directly to Stephen's banishment from her beloved ancestral home, Morton Hall. During World War I, Stephen finds both purpose and love, meeting the young Mary Llewellyn on the ambulance front lines and promising never to leave her. Their romance flourishes in Paris but grows increasingly strained by society's hostility, culminating in the devastating suicides of their close friends Barbara and Jaime. Knowing Mary deserves a life the world will accept, Stephen sacrifices their relationship by staging a false affair, watching Mary leave with Martin as she stands alone and bereft at the window.

Stephen Gordon's headline milestones from birth to final sacrifice.

Anna struggles from the start to feel love for her daughter Stephen, experiencing a cold detachment she cannot overcome.

Stephen deliberately injures her own knees for weeks, hoping to absorb and remove the pain from Collins's injured leg.

Roger Antrim bullies Stephen at a tea party, claiming the whole county laughs at her for wanting to be a boy.

Sir Philip buys Stephen a thoroughbred Irish hunter named Raferty, and the two become immediate and devoted companions.

The strict but generous Miss Puddleton is hired as Stephen's governess and quickly uncovers her remarkable natural talent for writing.

At seventeen, Stephen studies herself in the mirror and concludes that her face and frame mark her as irrevocably masculine.

Stephen and Martin Hallam form a close friendship, bonding over horseback riding and wide-ranging discussions about God and nature.

After her father's death, Stephen spares a wounded fox during a hunt and vows never to kill for sport again.

Stephen disbands the Morton stables and watches the horses she has known for years leave one by one.

Angela tells Stephen the story of her impoverished past, and Stephen slips a pearl ring onto Angela's finger.

Stephen and Puddle settle in London, where Stephen publishes her first novel and earns serious literary acclaim.

Stephen drives the ailing Raferty back to Morton and uses Sir Philip's revolver to end his suffering.

Stephen and Puddle arrive in Paris and are introduced to the respected and openly lesbian artist Valérie Seymour.

Lady Massey retracts her Christmas party invitation to Stephen and Mary after hearing rumors about their relationship.

Stephen confides her entire romantic and personal history to Martin, who weeps at the suffering her sexuality has caused her.

From Anna's earliest failure to bond with her infant daughter to Stephen's obsessive childhood love for the maid Collins, the seeds of Stephen's loneliness are planted long before she can name them. Her teenage years are defined by Puddle's discovery of her remarkable writing talent, the deep bond she forms with her horse Raferty, and the social rejection she suffers at the hands of peers who cannot accept her masculine nature. After Sir Philip's death, Stephen abandons hunting forever, reluctantly dismantles the stables he built, and is drawn into a doomed romance with Angela Crossby that deepens her self-understanding even as it tears her apart. A new life in London and then Paris offers fragile consolation through literary success, the company of Valérie Seymour's circle, and the warmth of Mary's love, though society continues to shut them out at every turn. By the time Stephen confides her entire history to the returned Martin Hallam, the cost of a lifetime of hiding has become impossible to conceal.

The supporting moments and quieter losses that shaped Stephen's path.

Sir Philip secretly reads books by the scholar Ulrichs, who argued that more than two genders exist in nature.

Anna and Sir Philip argue bitterly over Stephen's education and femininity after she storms home early from the Antrims.

The tactless but kind-hearted Mademoiselle Duphot is hired as Stephen's governess and teaches her French.

After rejecting Martin's proposal, Stephen asks Sir Philip twice whether she is strange; he deflects and then weeps alone.

Anna accuses Sir Philip of hiding something about Stephen and replacing her with their daughter; they argue through the night.

Stephen receives her private inheritance at twenty-one and feels, for the first time, like a truly free and independent woman.

Stephen demands that she and Angela confess their relationship to Ralph; Angela coldly refuses and tells her not to interfere.

Stephen arrives at Angela's house at dawn and watches Angela and Roger Antrim emerge together and kiss outside the door.

Searching her father's bookcase, Stephen finds his private notes revealing he knew about her sexuality and did not condemn her.

Puddle enters the study, tells Stephen she has suffered in the same way, and pledges to go wherever Stephen goes.

World War I breaks out and Stephen returns to England, determined to join the war effort despite being barred by her gender.

Stephen's cheek is torn open by shell shrapnel, and she and Mary are both awarded the Croix de Guerre.

On vacation in Orotava, Mary confronts Stephen about withdrawing her affection, and Stephen finally embraces her and they become lovers.

Martin tells Stephen he loves Mary and that only he can offer her the respectable life she deserves.

After Mary leaves with Martin, Stephen stands alone at the window and cries out to God, demanding the right to exist.

Beneath the surface of Stephen's childhood lie hidden truths: Sir Philip reads secretly about gender inversion, sensing his daughter's nature but never speaking it aloud, while Anna wages a quiet war against a daughter she cannot understand. As Stephen grows up, turning points accumulate — bitter parental confrontations over her future, the shock of rejecting Martin's love, and the dawning realization that she is not alone in the world, revealed at last through her father's hidden books. The war provides both heroism and the spark of a new love, but the peace that follows brings harder choices, as society's cruelty strips Stephen and Mary of friendships, dignity, and comfort one by one. Martin's return forces Stephen to confront whether keeping Mary is an act of love or selfishness, and she concludes she must set Mary free. In the devastating final scene, Stephen stands alone at the window after Mary's departure and cries out to God, demanding the right to existence for herself and all those like her.

The discoveries, confrontations, and decisions that changed the course of Stephen's life.