A girl who behaves like a boy, contrary to common gender stereotypes, is called a "tomboy" in American English. But isn't a "Tom" always already a boy, making the term inherently tautological? Why is this doubly masculine expression used exclusively for girls? And why can't a man be lesbian? Thomas Meinecke's novel is a bizarre cabinet of gender troubles. It features students in Heidelberg. The gender relations begin to dance, the male/female polarity is melted down, exposed as constructed, and transformed into a productive oscillation. An extraordinary program for which it is hard to find a literary example. Thomas Meinecke has chosen to pursue a very special theoretical discourse, namely the feminist perspective of gender studies.