Sylvia Kennin turns sixteen and is thrust into a family curse ... or is it a blessing? ... That will change her life forever. There are hundreds of challenges she must overcome before her seventeenth birthday when The Change will be complete. Most importantly, she must make it to her seventeenth birthday with her virtue intact. You wouldn't think that would be hard for a girl who's too tall, too plain and wears glasses. Oddly enough, there's just something about Sylvia that no single male can resist. For six months now Sylvia has struggled to accept her fate and make do with what she has to work with. Now, her father has taken a job in Alaska of all places. He's uprooting not only his daughter, but his second wife and her twins. Sylvia who has to leave her safe and familiar home, in Oklahoma, to hit the long road to the unknown northern wilds. Vulnerable and homesick she dodges the affections of the Affecteds along the way. From saying good-bye to Calvin in Oklahoma, she then has to say good-bye to Kevin and his two brothers in Nebraska. Oregon brings a whole gaggle of boys with the sullen Rob at the top of the heap. If someone, on the Alaska Marine Highway, asks you if you're a Phase-walker, turn around and run the other way. All these boys and she can't just keep one, so she wouldn't be so lonely. The Change is wrecking her life and it had better be worth it.