Nora Eldridge is a dutiful daughter, considerate neighbor, and exemplary third-grade teacher. She's also a seething cauldron of rage whose barely repressed id goes haywire when she encounters the glamorous Shahids. She quickly befriends Sirena--a revered artist and confidence conduit--who encourages Nora to rediscover her own creative ambitions, becomes a confidante to the entertaining, enigmatic, beautiful, etc., Skandar, and an honorary aunt to their darling son, Reza. What could possibly go wrong in this fog of longing and envy?

Plenty of e-ink has been spilled over Nora's "unlikability", which is code for "forcing the reader to think about uncomfortable things." Nora was a youth of great promise who now finds herself stuck in a way that her male peers are not. And why? Because she has spent her life soothing her parents, avoiding mistakes, ingratiating herself, and now cares for other people's children as her own reproductive years come to an end. The book is a powerful exploration of the ways in which "niceness"confined Nora to a bloodless life of blithe servitude.