Towards the beginning of the book, the protagonist, a pastry chef, walks in on her boss, the owner of the restaurant where she works and a prominent member of the community, as he is trying to force another employee to give him sexual favors in exchange for keeping her job after she made a small mistake. At the time when the protagonist walks in, the boss has his trousers and underwear down and is trying to kiss the employee. The boss fires the protagonist and threatens to ruin her career if she tries to tell anyone what happened. The protagonist had signed a non-disclosure agreement at the start of her career there, so she is too worried about the potential repercussions to go to the authorities. The protagonist's project from then on is to find women that the boss has harassed and get them to come forward against him. She has difficulty at first and makes some statements that some readers may find troubling, such as demonizing women who don't come forward and who therefore allow their antagonist to keep harassing others. As it turns out, the protagonist's close friend had been coerced into a sexual relationship with the boss when she had worked there in the past. The friend feels a lot of shame around this incident and for accepting hush money from him.