Beth Middleton, lapsed feminist, is recently separated from her husband and the custodial parent of their frequently hostile 14-year-old daughter. A failed investigative journalist in a financial and career slump, she's wary of the offer, from an unconventional source, of an exceptional assignment: Will she infiltrate an elite beauty clinic to uncover details of a state-of-the art treatment soon to be unleashed on an unsuspecting market? The anti-beauty guerrilla who briefs her claims the treatment could expose millions of women to possibly mortal danger.
Beth decides to do her bit to help loosen the hold an increasingly unrealistic beauty industry has over women including, potentially, her own daughter (and also perhaps resolve the ongoing contest between herself and her bathroom mirror). So she signs on as a client at this institution devoted to improving appearances - and finds many things are not what they appear to be at all.
