The thought of her brother, Tommy, leaving for college fills Ronny Nguyen with dread, as she contemplates the quiet house she will be left alone in with her parents, Me and Ba. They rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the lens of food. In the aftermath of the war, Me and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted. But when tragedy strikes, Ronny's world is upended. Her sense of self and her understanding of her family are shattered. A few nights later, at her first high school party, a boy crosses the line, and Ronny is overtaken by a force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for raw meat, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer.

Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota --- the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back --- a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Then rising social media star Olivia Willand goes missing. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: 19-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.