A chubby little girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and ordinary looks, Victoria Dawson has always felt out of place in her family, especially in body-conscious L.A. Her father, Jim, is tall and slender, and her mother, Christina, is a fine-boned, dark-haired beauty. Both are self-centered, outspoken, and disappointed by their daughter’s looks. When Victoria is six, she sees a photograph of Queen Victoria, and her father has always said she looks just...

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed "Dumplin'" by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked... until Will takes a job at Harpy's, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn't surprised to find herself...

Vickie Winters tries to warn her best friend, Rosie Gardener, overweight and unable to see her own worth, that the man she is marrying is a two-timing cad who is using Rosie as his meal ticket. After three years of marriage, Rosie kicks her husband out and starts to change her life with diet and exercise. But the biggest life-changing news of all is her winning lottery ticket worth $302 million.

When Lucy Brennan, a Miami Beach personal-fitness trainer, disarms an apparently crazed gunman chasing two frightened homeless men along a deserted causeway at night, the police and the breaking-news cameras are not far behind. Within hours, Lucy becomes a hero. Her celebrity is short-lived, though: the "crazed gunman," turns out to be a victim of child sexual abuse and the two men are serial pedophiles. The solitary eye-witness, the depressed and...

Cannie is a 28-year-old Philadelphia Examiner reporter preoccupied with her weight and men. After a "temporary" break-up with her boyfriend of three years, she reads his debut column, "Good in Bed," in the women's magazine Moxie. Titled "Loving a Larger Woman," this very personal piece triggers events that completely transform her and those around her.