If Sol can just survive his last year of high school, he can escape his homophobic small town and go live with his Internet boyfriend for the summer. But when he loses his starting spot on the baseball team and converts to vegetarianism a wolf, giving up meat! his father threatens him with a hot, muggy summer working in the peach cannery unless he gets his act together. His teammates, who suspect his sexuality already, won't make it easy for him. But even with nobody on his side but his best friend Meg (who is even less popular than he is), the teenager finds answers and solace in an unlikely place: a 1901 book about a tragic gay romance in the bohemian district of Lutèce, around the famed Moulin Rouge. Inspired by the spirit of the era, Meg and Sol share a glass of absinthe, with startling effect: Sol begins to dream that he is a cabaret dancer named Niki, offered a chance to escape his difficult life through romance at the price of his beloved art of dance.