This is a biography of Djuna Barnes (1892-1982), a familiar figure in Greenwich Village and bank literary and lesbian circles during the 1920s and 1930s. Mostly remembered for her novel Nightwood, she wrote many poems, plays and stories. The book explores Barnes' family life, including her possibly erotic relationship with her feminist and spiritualist grandmother, and her relationship with her bigamist father (who, some critics claim, may have sexually abused her). There are also chapters on her years as a journalist.