"Mannequins" opens a window to the coveted world of modeling and the beauty industry, its secrets, pressures, egos, disappointments, schemes and the struggle to survive in a universe that views glamour, image and eternal youth as sacred.
The protagonist, Miriam, is a beautiful girl who grew up in a strict religious home. We meet her in the happiest moment of her life, her engagement party. She is about to marry Shmuel, a member of a respected family in the community, in an arranged marriage. A moment before she is to marry a horrible secret is revealed: she is an illegitimate child. Her mother wasn't widowed, but rather gave birth out of wedlock, and was abandoned by the father, an unspeakable act in the religious society. The marriage is called off; Miriam and her mother are ostracized and exiled from the community which had been their home.
Miriam finds out who her father was and sets out to find him, intent on ruining him, just as he was responsible for the death of her mother.
She finds her father at a critical time in his career. He and his ex wife, now sworn enemies, own rivaling modeling agencies and have entered a high-stake bet: They each will take a beautiful, anonymous and inexperienced girl and turn her into a star model who will win the best model award. The winning model will seal the fate of their careers. The loser must retire and hand over his agency to the winner.
Miriam joins his agency, as a model, intent on destroying him from within. It seems like the perfect plan but in reality her desire for revenge will force Miriam to confront her values and beliefs and to come close to losing both.
Miriam succeeds: her father is implicated in sexual offenses, fraud and problems with the under-world. He is ruined. But as she gets ready to return to her life, she suddenly discovers that she brought down the wrong man. Her father had never abandoned her mother! He wanted to marry her and have a child with her. He is innocent.
While trying to right the wrongs she caused she exposes her true identity to her father. Together they will try to save each other from their enemies and from a mysterious killer who is claiming the lives of models.
In the heart of this story lies Miriam's first love. She falls for the one guy she shouldn't have fallen for. A man who is pivotal to her revenge plan, but is unaware of her true identity. The success of her plan can be his ruination. Will their love withstand the ordeals and obstacles put before them by life's twists and turns?
"Mannequins" shows us how far people are capable of going to achieve their goals; success, revenge, love or greed. Slowly the glamorous shell of the beauty world is chipped away to expose pain, anger, anxiety, betrayal, addiction and the desperate yet doomed struggle - to remain young and beautiful forever.
