Alice Hale leaves her publicity career to become a writer, moving to the New York suburbs with her husband in Recipe For a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown. But as she wanders restlessly throughout the house, she discovers a vintage cookbook with notes from the home's previous owner, a 1950s housewife named Nellie Murdoch. She discovers parallels between this Nellie's life and her own, causing her to rethink her relationship with her husband and reflect on what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal society. As she uncovers a sinister side to Nellie's marriage, Alice is drawn into the story even more and must decide what to do to protect herself.