Chapters 1-4:

In the first chapters, the main character is introduced, she is portrayed as a young and sophisticated woman who is focused on mainly her looks. For her, normally, every woman cares more about her beauty than anything else – she portrays the perfect stereotype. The reader gets to know that she lives with her brother and their maid, she nearly never leaves the house. Her favorite thing to do is to style herself and help with minor chores in the house, again she thinks that these are the most important roles of women. In one scene she looks out of the window and describes a little girl being run over by a car while her brother is hiding in a tree without looking at the accident, later it gets clearer that it is related to one incident happening in her childhood. Later on, she has a job interview for a delivery job. The boss of the company is quite surprised to see such a woman walking into his office. His main aspect for not giving her the job is her missing drivers’ license but the main character makes a big gender equality issue out of it. She thinks that she is not good enough because she is a woman and makes a big scene in the office. She leaves the office and the speechless boss behind and meets a random photographer on the street while looking into different shop windows. He charms her with compliments and asks her out into a cafe nearby. Although she is running late she says yes and goes with him. Sitting in the cafe makes her quite uncomfortable, the photographer does not act suiting but she still agrees on an appointment with him.

 

Chapters 5-9:

The main event of the chapters is that Roy is “back home”. Roy is presented as a quite ordinary young man, he looks quite stylish and does not spend a long time caring about himself. He went to the same place where Norma went for the job application, but instead of getting her scarf back and standing up for her he was aroused by the young woman standing at the reception desk. They flirted a little until he was called in for the job interview. In the end, he got the job, his talk with Mr. White, the boss of the firm, proceeded way different from the one that Norma had with him. Roy starts working and meets the young woman Eve in the shop on the opposite side. He bought some things and tried to have a conversation with her. Norma continues talking about her photoshoot since Roy has seen the photographer on the street. The first hints towards Norma’s identity arise as Roy feels like he has met him before. Roys work is explained a little bit further, while Norma mentioned her accident briefly. Mary tried to throw all of her feminine clothes away as she was smaller, Norma does not understand why. Mary offers to sow a dress for Norma, it’s the first time this has ever happened, her behavior has changed since Roy was so successful in his job. Family Price is introduced, one of Roys’s childhood friends is their son. A big focus lies on Mrs. Price chains that she makes herself and sells. Mrs. Price comes over one day and offers Roy some tarts while asking him about the young woman that was staying at his place. Roy pretended like he didn’t know what she was talking about, clearly hiding Norma’s existence. The identity of norma becomes more clear – she is the feminine side of Roy, both are the same person. 

Chapters 10-14:

Roys workday is described, more precisely his lunch break. As he walks down the park along a fence with houses and backyards behind it, Norma seems to be in control of the narrative (and his thoughts) as she seems to have a strong opinion about every one of them. In one there was a line with drying clothes hanging, some of which were undergarments. Roy went into the backyard and looked at them closely as he got caught by the owner. He ran away, still with a bra in his hand and got into the van. The woman was following him so he started the van. As he was searching for the bra to throw it out of the window he nearly ran over a little girl, after that incident Roy seemed very distant. Roy, being very shaken by the accident find himself driving up to the post office where he meets Eve, she is very concerned about him immediately. She takes him back to the office’s kitchen and Roy agrees with her offer to come and help him with the last deliveries. After delivering everything they spend some time in the van which leads to Roy kissing Eve and her inviting him over for dinner. After Eve takes Norma’s measurements and prepared everything else for the dress manufacturing Norma pretends to be getting a cold and went up to her room. In reality, she was getting ready to sneak out of the house for her photograph appointment with Mr. Hands. On her way out she saw her neighbor who couldn’t bear but stare at her, she just went straight to Mr. Hands’ house. Norma goes insides Mr. Hands flat and it does not seem professional at all. As it turns out he only wanted to take advantage of her, he starts to force her to let him touch her. After some time she finds the strength to defend herself self which ends in her killing him. In the end one neighbor knocks on the door asking if everything is okay, Norma does not answer and tries to hide it. Norma goes home, she sits in the van to escape Mary and try dealing with the situation. As the light turns off in the house she enters, she goes upstairs and gets rid of her clothing and makeup. Mary starts to knock on the door and then unlocks it. She asked Roy what has happened and he told her everything. Mary demanded to get rid of all of Norma’s clothing and other things, no dressing up from now on. Norma will leave forever.

Chapters 15 – 19:

Roy goes out to dispose of the luggage, he drives up to a bridge and when a train drives underneath it he wants to drop it into one of the wagons but cannot seem to let go. Two policemen arrive and humiliate him by forcing him to put on the clothing in the luggage since Roy started at first that those were his clothing. They leave again and Roy just wants to get home. Roy did not get rid of the luggage and lied to Mary, as he meets eve she sees it and suggests that he could store it at her place, he told her a different story to what had happened. He agrees and they bring it up to her flat. Before they have a chance to drive off for their picnic Mr. White comes around and asks Roy what he is doing with a work car outside of work, Roy is driving away alone and picks up eve later, Mr. White sees them but they just drive off. Eve and Roy are on their date at the picnic, although they get initiate Roy cannot let go of the last night as shown in the image of him wearing lipstick. Eve notices that something is going on with him and after talking at least Roy feels a little better. Roy watches the house that Hans lives in on a Sunday morning. After some time he decides to go inside hands flat to remove the skirt. Going inside he was sure the police were ready there since some evidence was gone and the suit on the bed was probably from his landlady preparing for the funeral. He then finds the skirt in the closet, it seems to be the important thing in it, all other clothes were pushed aside. Roy takes it and drives off. Roy and eve are at the cinema, Roy fries. it best to get Hands of his mind. But when a man with the same hat as him and a similar sounding voice comes into the cinema he can only focus on him. As eve and Roy go outside he recognizes Mr. hands, he is not dead. As Mr Hands gets back inside the cinema he walked in between eve and Roy for a short time and Roy is certain he recognized him.

Chapters 20-24:

Roy still thinks about Mr. Hands as eve and Roy are in a queue to get some crisps. Eve brings the topic up of men dressing as women and that she heard that the woman who forgot the scarf in the office (norma) was a man. Roy gets very offended and fights back but then tries to drop the topic. On their way back eve sees a dress in a shop window which she likes a lot, Roy gives his insides of women’s clothes which surprise eve in a good way. Roy has kept the skirt in his room and Mary found it. Roy explains everything to her and also tells her that Hands is not dead. Since Mary is still scared that they will get him for bodily harm they burn the skirt in the garden. Roy buys the dress for Eve. As she puts it on Roy gets excited and suggests that she should show him all the other clothes she is owning, but she refuses to do it now since she has to serve dinner for both of them. After dinner, Roy asks her if she wants to marry him and she says yes, the spent the rest of the evening thinking about all the practical things coming with the wedding. Roy tells marry about the wedding and after some arguments she allows it. Mr hands appear at Roy’s house wanting the money and the other things back that Roy stole. After an argument Me. Hands sees himself “defeated” by Mary and Roy. He uses eve as his comeback but Roy does not understand what he means.