"Origin Story" is a queer coming-of-age novel about trauma and recovery through art. Peter Edelman, a progressive Jewish activist, and his partner, fashion photographer Julian Selkirk, must navigate Peter's first long-term relationship against the backdrop of late-1990s New York City sexual politics. While working in a transitional home for at-risk youth, Peter collaborates with a teenage bi-gendered artist on a gay superhero comic with themes echoing his own long-repressed traumatic memories.