The film explores America's obsession with beauty, interviewing bigwigs in advertising, fashion, entertainment and, of course, the media, along with educators, health-care professionals and scientists. Along the way, we get some idea as to why Americans spent $12.4 billion on cosmetic surgery in 2004. Roger Ebert wrItes that the film is "about a culture 'saturated with the perfect,' in which women are taught to seek an impossible physical ideal, and men to worship it. It opens with shots of a pretty girl named Gerren Taylor, who looks terrific in the skimpiest of bikinis and draws admiration at a topless pool party, although she keeps her top on. Gerren is 12."