At the age of forty-seven, and married to writer Jay McInerny, who is seven years her junior, Bransford decided it was time to recapture that face she no longer saw when looking in the mirror. Her surgery involved a "touch of lipo" under the chin, a forehead peel and upper eyelid tuck, dermabrasion under the eyes, and a standard lift, and she chronicles it all -- with sage advice from the veteran to the uninitiated -- from the initial decision to that moment, a month after the event, when she was "dead certain" she had done the right thing. For all those who don't know anyone who's done it -- or is willing to discuss it -- Helen Bransford wild be that "best friend" who tells you what it's really like -- no holds barred -- and what you should do to prepare.

To augment her own story, Bransford interviewed doctors, nurses (who really know what's going on), and other patients, adding their expertise and experience to her own. She has researched every procedure from the most common eye lift to state-of-the-art ultrasonic liposuction, and she reports from the cosmetic surgery trenches with authority, understanding, and above all the clear-eyed awareness that "the entire exercise deals with the superficial, so you should consider no detail too trite".