Born in a dreary Kentucky coal camp during the Great Depression, Vestal Jenkins uses her one natural resource--her extraordinary beauty--as her ticket out of poverty.

Vestal's bawdy adventures include a brief period of religious piety, a loveless but lucrative marriage, an unsatisfactory stint as a shop girl and a financially rewarding foray into the world's oldest profession. This last venture leads Vestal to find her true profession--as the madam of the most notorious brothel in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Spanning decades, The Kind of Girl I Am humorously explores the changing sexual and social mores of the South and depicts an extraordinary woman's experiences of triumph, heartbreak, friendship and forbidden love.