Fourteen-year-old Alby is unlikely to break the taboo of self-admiration in her 1989 hometown in Montana. The universe has gifted Alby with acne and the compulsive behaviors of hair pulling (trichotillomania) and skin picking (excoriation disorder). She has no idea her "behaviors" are anything but her own weird flaws, hers alone in a conservative, religious world where misogyny and bigotry reign. Alby devises an unconventional recovery process in order to make headway in the romance department and learns that recovery is a lock with many keyholes, ranging from trusting a friend with the hair pulling problem to challenging the religious patriarchy. As she expands her self-centered perspective to view human worth through a new lens, she discovers there is more at stake than a simple romance.