In 1980s Quebec, Lila sees herself as the overweight, brown, immigrant kid. She idolizes her father, a literary scholar, and loves her mother, who is the perfect housewife. She also envies her lean younger sister and beautiful cousin. When Lila realizes she can control food, she becomes anorexic, wanting the slender "fairy" side of her to emerge. At the age of seventeen, Lila is admitted to a psych ward. Although she's planning on taking her life before turning eighteen, Lila strikes up an unexpected friendship with a fellow patient, Alyssa, that just might save her.
