As a young man living in New Orleans just after the turn of the century, Dixon Still is trying to find himself. Thirty years later, as an older man living in San Francisco, Dixon has arrived at a clearer sense of self, but he still finds something missing in his otherwise happy life. You Are Loved tells Dixon's story through two interconnected novellas, first when he is a young, aspiring photographer who has an affair with a married woman that brings about a coming of age both in terms of his art and his sexuality, and then thirty years later when he is a happily married museum curator whose life grows increasingly complicated through a web of open sexual relationships and professional expectations. You Are Loved attempts to reconcile Dixon's past notions of sex, love, and gender with his present ones, and in doing so limns the vast shifts in consciousness that occurred in the interim.