Ranma is a martial artist, and a teenage boy. At least, she used to be.

After an attack leaves Ranma trapped in a feminine body she never asked for, and unable to take a hit, her life as she knew it is over. She runs from her home and her abusive father, and after spending a few months homeless in Tokyo, takes a job in a bar called the Phoenix run by a found family consisting of the bar's matriarch owner and four hard-luck women she took under her wing as teenagers. At the Phoenix, Ranma finds a place where she can be accepted and "normal," begins to deal with the trauma she's been though, and experiences the first unconditional love she's ever known. As she does so, she begins to embrace her new life as a young woman, discovers a new talent and potential career in music, and rises from the ashes of the life she once knew.

Phoenix is part 1 of the Phoenix Saga, along with Phoenix Ascendant (part 2) and Phoenix Odyssey (part 3). It is a Ranma 1/2 fanfiction, but no prior fandom knowledge is required to read and enjoy Phoenix and its sequels.