The film chronicles the life of Pippa Lee (Robin Wright), with flashbacks to her tumultuous past. Pippa Sarkissian (Blake Lively) was the youngest child and only girl in her large Christian family. Her mother Suky (Maria Bello) was a neuroticism mother with an obsessive fixation on her daughter's looks. By her teen years, Pippa discovers that her mother takes amphetamines to self-medicate vast mood swings. She has a confrontation with her mother by taking drugs and Pippa moves to her aunt and roommate, who are in a lesbian menage. The aunt discovers Pippa participating in erotic photo sessions with the roommate and her friends; Pippa is banished again and goes on to live a bohemian life of drugs and work as an exotic dancer.