Teenage Charlotte's beautiful mother is dead, and in the midst of her own grief and her father's unwillingness to cope, she turns for comfort to the story of Helen of Troy, convinced that beauty, desire and fame can help her bring her mother back and punish the world that took her away in the first place. Getting beauty tips from her popular friend, seeking career advice on how to be a porn star from a guidance counselor who may or may not be having an affair with her, and searching for love from the football jock who may barely even knows she exists, Charlotte finds herself searching in fantasy for what she cannot find in reality, and ends up destroying the life and dreams of perhaps the only friend she ever really had. But in the depths of pain, she comes to discover an unexpected grace. -- Publisher's description.