Uglies - Plot

Plot

Uglies is set in Northern California “three hundred years from now, ” where the government provides for everything, including plastic surgery operations. Everyone on their sixteenth birthday receive the “pretty” operation which transforms them into the society's standard of beautiful. After the operation, new "Pretties" cross the river that divides the city and lead a new life with no responsibilities or obligations. There are actually three operations; the first transforms people from “uglies” (unchanged teenagers), to “pretties”. Another one transforms “pretties” to “middle-pretties” (adults with a job), and the third transforms “middle-pretties" to "crumblies."

The term "Rusties" refers to those who lived before the historical apocalypse that ended the old society. The Rusties' cities have decayed after a bacteria that infected the oil society had been so dependent on, making it unstable. Cars everywhere exploded, along with the oil fields nations had been fighting over. Supplies and food could no longer be transported, and society fell apart.

Tally Youngblood is almost sixteen, only 3 more months until her birthday. Like every other "Ugly", she awaits the operation with great anticipation. Tally’s best friend, Peris, has already had the operation and, motivated by her desire to see him, Tally sneaks across the river to New Pretty Town, the Peris' new home. There she meets Shay, another ugly sneaking around New Pretty Town. They quickly become friends and Shay teaches Tally how to ride a hoverboard. Shay also mentions rebelling against the operation. At first, Tally ignores all the idea, but is forced to deal with it when Shay runs away a few days before their shared sixteenth birthday, leaving behind cryptic directions to her destination, a “renegade settlement” called Smoke, where city runaways go to escape the operation.

On the day of Tally’s operation, she is taken to Special Circumstances, a division that is likened to “gremlins” and “ when anything weird happens. ” However, few people actually knows anything about them, and most even question their very existence. Dr. Cable is a woman who is described as “a cruel pretty” with a razor voice, sharp teeth, and non-reflexive gray eyes. She is the head of Special Circumstances and gives Tally an ultimatum to either help them locate Shay and the Smoke, or she may never become a Pretty. After considering the alternatives, Tally decides to cooperate with Special Circumstances. Dr. Cable gives her a hoverboard and all the needed supplies to survive in the wild, along with a heart locket that contains a tracking device. Once activated, it will show the location of the Smoke to Special Cirmcumstances. Following Shay's clues, Tally sets off to find her friend.

After less than a week of travel, Tally arrives at the Smoke, where she finds Shay, her friend David and an entire community of runaway uglies. She is reluctant to activate the pendant and it eventually becomes clear that David is in love with her. One night, David takes her to meet his parents, Maddy and Az, who are the original runaways from the city. They explain how the operation does more than “cosmetic nipping and tucking. ” It also causes lesions in the brain to make the people placid, or “pretty-minded. ” Horrified at what her own city is doing, Tally decides to keep the Smoke secret and throws the locket into a fire, in an attempt to destroy the tracker. Instead the flames' heat causes the tracket to activate, giving away the Smoke’s location.

The following morning, Special Circumstances arrives at the camp and Tally narrowly escapes. She hides in a cave where they cannot track her heat signature. There she finds finds David also hiding. Together, they begin to plan a rescue.

Everyone from the Smoke has been taken by Special Circumstances and are being prepped for the operation forcing them to become pretties. As Tally and David travel back to the city to free their friends, they fall in love. Arriving at the Special Circumstances complex, they discover that the Shay has already been “turned” and is now a pretty. After meeting her, David knocks out Dr. Cable and takes her work tablet, which contains all of the necessary information to reverse the brain lesions created by the pretty operation. Tally and David then free all the Smokies held in the complex. As they are escape the complex, though, Maddy has to tell David that his father, Az, is dead.

Once everyone is safe, Maddy begins working on a cure using Dr. Cable’s tablet and materials “brought by city uglies”. She figures out a cure and offers it to Shay, who refuses, not wanting to become a “vegetable.” Since Tally feels responsible for her betrayal, she decides to become a pretty and take the cure as a “willing subject”. To convince David to let her go back to the city, she tells him about her involvement with Special Circumstances and searching for the Smoke to betray them. While David is absorbing what Tally just admitted, Maddy advises Tally to go back with Shay before she changes her mind. Once there, Tally announces to a middle pretty,“I’m Tally Youngblood. Make me pretty, ” the final phrase of the novel.