Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer’s day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day’s work grinds on, the friction between Ning’s two identities, as anonymous manicurist & brilliant observer of her own circumstances, will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
