Marissa Jaret Winokur plays Becca Wasserman, a young woman recently engaged to a young man, Adam Lopez. Hoping to improve their modest honeymoon plans, Becca seeks the vacation prize offered in a local beauty pageant. Charming and buoyant, Becca enters herself confidently, over the objections of her embarrassed mother who believes that her daughter's plus-size form will be ridiculed. Becca rejects the criticism and becomes determined to win.[1][2]
Overcoming all expectations, Becca becomes Miss Squirrel Hill. The flush of success drives her to compete in other, larger pageants in the city, and she announces ambitious plans for the future. Her fiancé is supportive at first, but he becomes quickly dismayed by her aggressive efforts to win. As Becca struggles to advance in the pageant circuit, she appears to change for the worse in many ways, before finally recapturing her original good nature and joie de vivre.[1][2]