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Light-skinned Black woman Irene Redfield encounters an old childhood friend - Clare - who is now "passing" as a White woman. Clare is married to a racist White man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. In spite of the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large, she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world.

In Passing, Nella Larsen delivers a powerful, evocative exploration of identity, race, and the complex choices we make to survive. Irene Redfield, a Black woman living in Harlem, finds her world upended when she reconnects with her childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Clare, who has "passed" as white for years, leads a life of privilege, while Irene’s identity remains grounded in the Black community.

Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing is hailed today as a significant literary work of Harlem Renaissance, though for several decades it, like all of her works, was out of print. As history rights a wrong and recommits Larsen’s name to memory, it is beneficial to look at the other writings she published over her short career, collected here in Beyond Passing: The Further Writings of Nella Larsen.