Clothesline Patch is the story of a young girl trying to keep a secret in a small Newfoundland outport (c. 1966), an unlikely setting for keeping secrets. The central focus is the clothesline patch, the communal clearing where washing is set out to dry. It is also the place where gossip is shared. Hannah is determined that her secret of becoming a woman must never reach the clothesline patch. To ensure this, she goes to extraordinary lengths to hide the fact that she has entered puberty, sometimes with amusing results.