Try to imagine how it feels to go from sow's ear to silk purse or vice versa.

Try to envision the forces that compel well-adjusted, already attractive, and generally prudent people to submit gleefully to the risk of physical and psychological mutilation.

Unless you're one of the insiders, you can't.

And if your primary reference sources on the subject consist of celebrity magazines, beauty surgeon websites, online patient message boards, and cable television at its sleazy worst, you especially can't.

While cosmetic surgery -- that plastic surgery outlier -- has morphed into a snazzy public production, industry goals and machinations remain highly private beneath a shell of reflective acrylic that only grows more polished by the day. While the sheen of its public face may at first suggest glitz and glamor, the blinding reflections serve even better as a mirror, allowing hopeful clientele to project their own dreams onto it without delving too much deeper.

But, of course, even the most clever of masks is not impervious. Like a Polaroid lens cutting down on excess glare, now there's a chance to squint past at least part of the dazzle.

Authored by a cosmetic surgeon turned novelist, what follows is a selection of prickly situations imagined to their extremes, thought-provoking and sometimes quirky short fiction that explores the hidden motivations, insecurities, delights, and fears of the Plaztik People -- both the patients who get nipped and tucked and the beauty doctors who make it happen.

Although the facade remains intact, catch a brief glimpse of the other side and experience a surreal medical landscape far different than an emergency room.

featuring the graphically-enhanced