billie is a teenage girl who is sent from manila to the remote town of st. isidro to attend a catholic girls school, where her father hopes she will learn not to be a lesbian. she lives with her aunt, who is also the religion teacher at the school, who instructs the girls on the sinfulness of homosexuality and abortion. billie tries to fit in at her new school, hoping to make it through the last year of high school without incident, and then go back to manila to study music. but with her short hair and combat boots, she is a clear outlier, drawing the scorn of her fellow students, including the popular emma. emma is the daughter of a single mother who is looked down upon in town, but she gains recognition as the star student and most popular girl in the school. emma and billie are assigned to do a class project together, and very soon, the two begin to influence each other, and then they fall in love.