Tally sneaks into New Pretty Town wearing a pig mask to visit Peris, who sends her away.

Tally sets off a fire alarm, steals a bungee jacket, and leaps from a New Pretty Town party tower.

Tally meets Shay while both girls are sneaking back across the river to Uglyville.

Shay tells Tally about a secret community called the Smoke and leaves her cryptic directions to find it.

On Tally's surgery day, Dr. Cable intercepts her and demands she spy on the Smoke in exchange for becoming pretty.

Peris visits Tally and reminds her of their best-friends-forever promise, convincing her to cooperate with Special Circumstances.

Dr. Cable gives Tally a locket with a hidden tracker and a long-range hoverboard to reach the Smoke.

Rangers rescue Tally from a controlled wildfire and fly her to the Smoke rendezvous point.

Tally arrives at the Smoke, a hidden community of uglies who have rejected city life and surgery.

Maddy and Az reveal that the pretty surgery deliberately creates brain lesions designed to make citizens compliant.

Tally throws the tracking locket into a fire, choosing to fully commit to the Smoke community.

Special Circumstances invades the Smoke at dawn and captures Tally after she tries to escape barefoot.

Tally tricks a Special into cutting her handcuffs, steals a hoverboard, and escapes to find David in a cave.

Tally and David break into Special Circumstances headquarters, knock Dr. Cable unconscious, and free the captured Smokies.

Tally volunteers to undergo the pretty surgery as a test subject for Maddy's cure and surrenders to a city warden.

Tally Youngblood sneaks into New Pretty Town to visit her surgically transformed best friend Peris, but he sends her away and she meets another ugly named Shay during her escape. When Shay disappears to a hidden community called the Smoke, Dr. Cable of Special Circumstances withholds Tally's surgery to coerce her into acting as a spy, and Tally reluctantly agrees. Armed with a locket containing a hidden tracker, she makes the dangerous solo journey to the Smoke, where she discovers that the pretty surgery deliberately creates brain lesions designed to keep people obedient. She destroys the locket to protect the Smoke community, but Special Circumstances invades the very next morning, and Tally is captured before escaping to find David. Together they break into Special Circumstances headquarters to free the captured Smokies, and Tally ultimately volunteers to undergo the surgery herself to test Maddy's cure, surrendering to a city warden.

The headline events that drive Tally from Uglyville to the Smoke and back.

Tally and Shay discover they share the same birthday, meaning they could undergo the pretty surgery together.

Shay and Tally use a face-morphing program to design pretty versions of themselves, sparking an argument about identity.

Shay takes Tally on a night hoverboard ride to explore the Rusty Ruins outside the city.

Shay lights a signal flare at the Rusty Ruins hoping to summon David, but he never appears.

Tally and Shay stage a fake bungee jacket fight in front of newly arrived uglies at the library.

Tally and Shay have a fierce argument about beauty and individuality while swimming and Shay storms off alone.

Tally's parents visit to comfort her and urge her to cooperate with Special Circumstances.

Tally reunites with Shay at the Smoke rendezvous point and the group discovers a tracker hidden on her hoverboard.

David gifts Tally a rare pair of leather work gloves, sparking jealousy in Shay.

Tally almost activates her tracking locket in the Smoke library but is interrupted before she can do so.

Croy confronts Tally about inconsistencies in her travel story, suggesting she had far more supplies than she admitted.

Tally discovers that Shay has already been surgically transformed into a pretty inside Special Circumstances headquarters.

The escaping Smokies scatter tracker-laden sleeve pieces into the river to throw off their pursuers.

Maddy announces she has found a cure for the brain lesions, but Shay refuses to take it.

Tally dictates a letter to her future pretty self and asks Shay to write it down before they leave.

Before Shay leaves for the Smoke, she and Tally bond through hoverboarding, shared pranks, and heated arguments about beauty and individuality that reveal the cracks in their society. Their friendship deepens through escapades at the Rusty Ruins and the library, but Shay's departure forces Tally into an agonizing position when Special Circumstances refuses her the surgery. Once Tally reaches the Smoke, she integrates into the community, navigating Shay's jealousy over David's attention while her hidden guilt about the locket grows unbearable. The Smoke's destruction triggers a desperate escape from Special Circumstances and a long period of hiding in the Rusty Ruins, during which Maddy races to develop a cure. Shay's stubborn refusal to take the cure ultimately drives Tally's sacrifice, and she prepares a letter to her future self before walking back into the city she has come to oppose.

The friendships, pranks, and quieter moments that shape Tally's journey.

Tally meets Peris post-surgery and realizes his perfectly transformed face has come at the cost of genuine feeling.

Shay returns after their fight and reveals that several of her old friends have already run away to the Smoke.

Tally refuses Dr. Cable's initial demand to spy on the Smoke, choosing loyalty to Shay over her own surgery.

Tally's hoverboard drops off a cliff and loses all magnetism over water, but her crash bracelets activate and save her.

Tally bathes in a river during her journey and feels a profound connection with the natural world for the first time.

Tally wakes surrounded by fire after falling asleep in a field of invasive white orchids.

David reveals he was born in the Smoke and that his parents voluntarily reversed their own pretty surgeries.

Tally initiates a kiss with David and resolves that she will never activate the tracking locket against the Smoke.

Shay publicly accuses Tally of being a Special Circumstances spy while both girls are held captive at the Smoke.

Tally and David return to the Smoke to find the settlement burned to the ground and all Smokies taken.

Tally finds Boss's body in the woods while searching through the burned ruins of the Smoke settlement.

David questions Tally's escape story after noticing she is wearing two sets of handcuffs on her wrists.

Maddy breaks the news to the escaping group that Az did not survive his time in Special Circumstances captivity.

David reveals that Az died during an experimental city surgery designed to erase his memories.

Tally confesses her role as a Special Circumstances spy to David, who is devastated and runs away into the wilderness.

Tally's assumptions about the pretty surgery are first shaken when she sees Peris's altered personality up close, and they deepen when Shay returns after their fight to reveal that friends have already escaped to the Smoke. Her refusal to cooperate with Dr. Cable marks her first independent stand, while her solo journey forces a series of physical and emotional tests that awaken her connection to the natural world. In the Smoke, revelations from David and his parents about the brain lesions lead Tally to destroy her locket and fully commit to the community, only for the invasion to expose her guilt and Shay's accusation to shatter her sense of belonging. The grueling aftermath reveals further losses, including the discovery of Boss's body and the truth of Az's death, steadily intensifying Tally's determination to make amends. Her confession to David and her decision to volunteer as a test subject complete her transformation from a passive girl longing to be pretty into someone willing to sacrifice everything for the truth.

The key discoveries and decisions that transform Tally's understanding of her world.