In 1986, three women convicted of politically motivated nonviolent offenses were transferred to a secret, subterranean prison where they were kept in constantly lit near isolation, watched 24 hours a day and strip-searched routinely for nearly two years. The women were not imprisoned in Turkey or Iran or Chile, but in Lexington, Ky.

Gary, a 39-year-old successful animation artist and devout Christian, is pursuing a lifelong dream — to become a woman. Metamorphosis is a candid, non-sensational and sometimes humorous journey of nearly three years as Gary prepares physically and emotionally for sex reassignment surgery. Along the way, the film raises provocative questions about what really makes us men and women.