Nightbitch notices coarse dark hair sprouting from her neck and her teeth becoming sharper, fearing she is turning into a dog.

Nightbitch visits the local library and discovers a mysterious book called A Field Guide to Magical Women by Wanda White.

Three mysterious dogs appear on Nightbitch's lawn, seemingly beckoning her to follow them, but she shoos them away.

The three dogs return at night, pull off Nightbitch's clothes, and push her onto her hands and knees.

Nightbitch wakes to find a pile of dead animals left outside her door by the three dogs.

Nightbitch's husband returns home to find an enormous wolf-like dog sitting beside their son — Nightbitch in transformed form.

As a dog, Nightbitch defecates on a neighbor's lawn, then chases and kills a rabbit in the park.

Nightbitch wakes after her first night as a dog feeling more alive than she has since her son's birth.

Nightbitch and her husband laugh together about her strange absence, reconnect, and make love more passionately than ever before.

At the library, Nightbitch recognizes that Jen smells identical to one of the dogs that had visited her home.

At dinner with two old art school friends, Nightbitch erupts in rage, barks, knocks over the table, and storms out.

Nightbitch trips over her cat after fleeing the restaurant and, in her fury, stabs and kills it.

Nightbitch's husband discovers her naked in the garden eating a rabbit and accepts this behavior as part of her art.

Nightbitch performs a prototype of her show in the backyard; the other women mimic her as dogs until one screams and they all flee.

In her final theatrical performance, Nightbitch kills rabbits on stage, chases the audience into an enchanted forest, and offers a rabbit to her son.

A stay-at-home mother calling herself Nightbitch begins showing physical signs of transforming into a dog, which her husband dismisses. After finding a mysterious book about mythical women and being initiated by three dogs that strip her naked and leave dead animals at her door, Nightbitch fully transforms one night and roams the neighborhood. Her husband discovers her transformed state but they reconnect, and Nightbitch begins identifying joyfully with her dog nature. A disastrous dinner with old art school friends triggers a violent crisis that ends with Nightbitch killing her cat and questioning whether her dog life has gone too far. Ultimately, Nightbitch channels all of this into a performance art piece, confronting her audience as a dog on stage. The show culminates in her presenting the limp body of a rabbit to her young son, reconciling motherhood and art.

The core transformation story — from frustrated mother to empowered dog-woman artist.

Nightbitch's husband laughs off her concerns about turning into a dog, dismissively telling her she is definitely a dog.

Nightbitch attempts hand-painting with her son, but paint ends up covering everything and the activity goes completely awry.

Nightbitch discovers a lump at the base of her spine and cuts into it herself, finding what appears to be a tail.

Nightbitch notices her sense of smell has dramatically intensified and she develops a powerful craving for raw red meat.

Nightbitch buys a large quantity of red meat at the supermarket and bumps into Sally, a former colleague from the gallery.

Nightbitch grows four new nipples on her torso and hides them from her husband when he tries to initiate sex.

Nightbitch's son carries a raw steak in his mouth into the living room and drops it at his father's feet.

Nightbitch's husband tells her that the dog games need to stop after discovering how far the behavior has gone.

Nightbitch convinces her son to give up his pacifier by having him sleep in a makeshift kennel as a doggy game.

Nightbitch meets a graduate school friend for lunch and for the first time feels no jealousy about her friend's art career.

After storming out of the restaurant, Nightbitch runs into the woods, howling in anguish and killing several small animals.

Nightbitch reads Wanda White's chapter about the WereMothers of Siberia, who use telepathy, live without men, and leave no trace.

Nightbitch attends Jen's herb party and watches it reveal itself as a pyramid scheme, with Jen collecting six hundred dollars from each mother.

Nightbitch successfully confronts her husband and demands he take charge of their son's bedtime every night he is home.

Nightbitch learns Jen is in debt over her failed herb business and offers her a job as publicist for her art project.

Nightbitch's transformation begins with small physical changes — a tail-like lump, extra nipples, and a powerful craving for raw meat — that her rational husband dismisses or ignores. Her son's doggy games start spilling into family life, provoking a confrontation in which her husband insists the behavior must stop. Meanwhile, Nightbitch navigates the relentless monotony of childcare, using inventive play to solve stubborn problems like getting her son to sleep without his pacifier. She attends Jen's herb-selling party, which reveals itself as an exploitative pyramid scheme, and later wins a key domestic battle by demanding her husband share the bedtime routine. By pulling Jen out of her debt and recruiting her as publicist, Nightbitch begins assembling the practical support she needs to bring her performance to the world.

The supporting story — domestic struggles, small revelations, and the road to the stage.

Nightbitch recalls quitting her job as a gallery director because the guilt and emotional strain of using daycare became unbearable.

Nightbitch reads about the Bird Women of Peru in Wanda White's book, who sprout beaks and fly away in old age.

Nightbitch emails Wanda White asking whether her research into mythical women is scientifically real or a kind of performance scholarship.

At a café, Nightbitch devours meatloaf in an animalistic frenzy, barks with her son, and genuinely enjoys being a mother.

Nightbitch begins strongly identifying with her animal instincts and senses that this transformation is making her a better mother.

Nightbitch reads Wanda White's passage about the primal magical powers available to mothers who live between the animal and human.

After her first full transformation, Nightbitch realizes she was right to be angry about sacrificing her career while her husband kept his.

When her husband confronts Nightbitch about her strange absence, she refuses to apologize and the two reconcile with shared laughter.

Nightbitch reflects on how her mother sacrificed a chance to study opera in Europe when she became pregnant with Nightbitch.

Nightbitch stops shaving all of her body hair and covers every mirror in her house.

Nightbitch lies to her husband about killing the cat, claiming she accidentally dropped a knife on it while cooking.

Nightbitch answers her husband's phone question about how she is doing by letting out a howl she has practiced all week.

For a month, Nightbitch goes out on weekend nights as a dog, and her husband washes her when she returns home.

Nightbitch reflects that she did not recognize her newborn son at birth but now fully recognizes herself in him.

Nightbitch realizes that Wanda White is not a real person but an ideal she has now achieved through her art.

Nightbitch's inner journey begins with the painful recognition that she quit her career because the guilt of daycare was unbearable, a sacrifice her husband never had to make. Small revelations follow — a passage about the powers of mothers, a skeptical email to a mysterious scholar, and a moment of genuine joy at a café — that begin shifting her sense of self. After her first full transformation, Nightbitch stops apologizing and starts reckoning with her anger, recognizing the unfairness of her situation and her mother's before her. A series of private acts — stopping shaving, covering mirrors, howling down the phone — mark her deepening commitment to her animal self. By the novel's end, she has discovered in her husband a love she thought was lost, recognized herself fully in her son, and grasped that Wanda White was never a real person but an ideal she has now become.

The inner journey — key realizations, emotional shifts, and artistic awakening.