Jane Yolen and her daughter Heidi E.Y. Stemple place themselves inside a story about their research into the real history of twenty-six infamous female girls, like Cleopatra or Bonnie--from Bonnie and Clyde--and debate amongst themselves whether or not these girls really were bad, or just did not fit into old time cultural norms.

Introduction: Bad, mad, or thoroughly rotten -- Delilah (circa 110 BCE) : a mere snip of a girl -- Jezebel (9th century BCE) : a perfectly bad queen -- Cleopatra (69-30 BCE) : the queen of denial -- Salome (circa 14-71 CE) : a little strip of a girl -- Anne Boleyn (circa 1500-1536) : she lost her head for love -- Bloody Mary (1516-1558) : a woman of burning faith -- Elisabeth Báthory (1560-1614) : countess bloodbath -- Moll Cutpurse (circa 1584-1659) : high directress of the black dogs -- Tituba (circa 1670s-?) : one witchy woman -- Anne Bonney (late 1600s and 1720s) and Mary Read : pirates in petticoats -- Peggy Shippen Arnold ( 1760-1804) : bride of treason -- Catherine the Great (1729-1796) : queen of coups -- Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1817-1864) : the rebel rose -- Belle Starr (1848-1889) : belle of the bad-boy ball -- Calamity Jane (circa 1852-1903) : courtin' calamity -- Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) : one whacky woman -- Madame Alexe Popova (1850s-1909) : she popped over three hundred -- Pearl Hart (circa 1871-1925) : mama's wild child -- Typhoid Mary (1869-1938) : a cook without a conscience -- Mata Hari (1876-1917) : the spy who loved everyone -- Ma Barker (circa 1873-1935) : mother knows worst -- Beulah Anna (circa 1901-1928) and Belva Gaertner (circa 1885-1965) : Chicago's merry murderesses -- Bonnie Parker (1910-1934) : Clyde's girl -- Virginia Hill (1916-1966) : gangster girlfriend -- Conclusion: Modern times and changing gender roles.