Sephora Golding lives in the shadow of her unbelievably beautiful mother. Even though they scrape by in the seedier part of Venice Beach, she's always felt lucky. As a child, she imagined she was a minor but beloved character in her mother's fairy tale. But now, at sixteen, the fairy tale is less Disney and more Grimm. And she wants the story to be her own. Then she meets Felix, and the fairy tale takes a turn she never imagined. Sometimes, a story is just a way to hide the unspeakable in plain sight.

Sephora, a 17-year-old surfer and artist, discovers a secret so horrible that she cannot share it, especially with her beautiful mother, although they have always been unusually close. The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, and mature themes.