Folly is a working-class, lesbian novel about black and white women who go on strike in a North Carolina factory town--and two of them fall in love. Tillie Olsen said that this novel "speaks with an authenticity, a force, a caring that deepens and enlarges us." Jewelle Gomez noted that this is a novel about "work and passion," in which "women bond together for strength, for a better life, and for love."