Cover Story

The novel follows Ali Larson, a 35-year-old celebrity publicist in Los Angeles who specializes in managing the public images of famous clients, including keeping gay celebrities closeted. Ali is an out lesbian still deep in grief one year after the death of her partner, Natalie. She lives alone with her terrier mix, Glen, in the Silver Lake hills, battling chronic migraines, severe anxiety, and a driving phobia stemming from a car accident. Her true passion is writing short stories, but she has never been published and keeps her writing secret from almost everyone.

Ali works at a PR firm run by Victoria, an incompetent heiress who bought the company a year ago, alongside her close friend and coworker Namisa, a British transplant who also privately despises the industry. Ali's job requires her to arrange fake relationships, known as "beards," for closeted stars, stage paparazzi photos, and fabricate stories for the press. Although the work disgusts her as a gay woman, she has spent over a decade participating in the system. Her best friend from childhood, Dana, now lives in Pasadena with two young children whose constant demands have strained their once-close bond.

Ali's life shifts when Victoria assigns her a new client: Cara Bisset, a 25-year-old actress starring in Real Love, an upcoming romantic blockbuster. The studio wants Ali, specifically because she is gay, to convince Cara to hide her sexuality so the assignment will not appear homophobic. At their first lunch, Cara arrives in mismatched athleisure, immediately flirts with the waitress, and calls the whole arrangement morally sketchy. She is brash, openly gay, and resistant to pretending. Ali delivers her standard argument that being out will prevent Cara from achieving her career goals, including winning Oscars. Cara reluctantly agrees not to discuss her sexuality publicly but insists she will never claim to be dating a man.

As Ali develops Cara's PR strategy, positioning her as a smart, politically engaged star with feminist humor, the two grow unexpectedly close. Cara is relentlessly curious about Ali's life, eventually coaxing out the secret that Ali writes fiction. During a debilitating 10-day migraine, Cara visits Ali's apartment uninvited and performs a Thai massage technique that relieves the pain. Ali opens up about her mother's bipolar disorder and death from leukemia, and reveals that Natalie did not leave her but died. Cara persuades Ali to join the Real Love world promotional tour.

Cara's media rollout proceeds successfully. She debuts on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where speculation about on-screen chemistry between Cara and her costar Davi Silva, a bisexual actor also hiding his sexuality, goes viral. A Vanity Fair profile by journalist Jason Kim generates attention but includes a pointed observation that Cara seems to be holding back. Real Love opens at number one with a $52 million weekend. At the premiere after-party, a blogger captures video of Cara straddling Ali during a playful moment, which circulates alongside a clip in which Cara accidentally refers to an ex using female pronouns. Gossip blogs begin speculating about Cara's sexuality.

On the promotional tour, feelings between Ali and Cara intensify. On the flight to Paris, Cara reads one of Ali's stories without permission, and Ali is furious until Cara offers genuine, detailed praise. In Paris, Ali had planned to avoid the city where Natalie once proposed to her, but Cara draws her out, and they explore the Marais together. That night Cara falls asleep in Ali's bed, and Ali sleeps deeply for the first time in months.

In London, a paparazzo obtains photos of Cara kissing a woman during a pub crawl and threatens to leak them. Cara confesses she only kissed the woman because she could not kiss Ali, and they share their first real kiss. To neutralize the photos, Ali orchestrates a fake romantic outing between Cara and Davi at a London patisserie, where staged images are sold to Us Weekly. The internet embraces the couple as "Cavi," and Cara's profile soars, while Ali feels wretched deepening the deception.

The secret romance develops across the remaining tour stops. In Tokyo, Cara sings "I Want to Know What Love Is" directly to Ali at a karaoke bar, and that night they sleep together for the first time, though Ali begins crying when memories of Natalie intrude. In Buenos Aires, Cara reveals she was raped at 18 by the director of her sitcom Overruled, a man who had been a father figure. In Rio de Janeiro, Ali opens up about her childhood caring for her mother. They become each other's confidants, bonded by shared vulnerability.

Back in Los Angeles, Cara asks Ali to be her girlfriend. They navigate secrecy through outings the media labels as platonic and staged double dates with Davi and his lover Tyson. Cara lands a lead in the next Star Wars film, which alarms Ali, who worries it will further delay Cara's ability to come out. During a Christmas visit from Ali's father Gene, a retired detective, Ali confronts him about the burden she carried as a child. Gene reveals painful truths he had shielded her from, including her mother's affairs, drug use, and violence toward him. He apologizes, and Ali's anger dissolves. A group Christmas gathering brings together Cara's mother Deb, Cara's best friend and drag queen roommate Skylar, Dana's family, and Gene, and the evening goes unexpectedly well.

Ali asks Cara to come out, admitting the secrecy makes her feel invisible. She tells Cara she loves her for the first time. Cara refuses, arguing it could destroy her career, and points out the irony that Ali originally insisted on the closet. The conflict deepens when Cara gives a Vogue interview praising her relationship with Davi, using words Ali recognizes as being about her. During a weekend in Palm Springs, a poolside stranger recognizes Cara and suspects the two are a couple. Cara panics, and when room service arrives, she pushes Ali into a literal closet to hide her. Standing inside, Ali knows the relationship is over. They break up tearfully.

Ali channels her anguish into action. She proposes a strategy to a closeted client: If enough actors come out simultaneously, no single person bears the full backlash. When Victoria forbids this approach, Ali quits. She and Namisa launch Frankly PR, an agency dedicated to honest representation. Ali also reconciles with Dana, and both acknowledge the distance that had grown between them. A neurologist and pain psychologist teach Ali that fear amplifies her migraines, and by observing her symptoms without reacting, she begins to reduce them. Her short story is accepted for publication for the first time.

At the Academy Awards, Cara wins Best Actress for Real Love but appears hollow during her acceptance speech. The next morning she arrives at Ali's door, still in her gown, and says that winning felt empty because it did not justify the hiding and lying. She wants to come out and asks Ali to help her, and to take her back. Ali says yes. They plan a coming-out interview with Jason Kim for Vanity Fair, and Cara decides to give up her Star Wars role in favor of a film about ACT UP, the AIDS activist organization, now casting openly gay actors.

In the final scene, Cara gets food poisoning and cannot drive home. Ali, who has not driven in four years, takes the keys, instructs her brain to believe she can do it, and presses her foot to the gas.