Trapped and isolated in small-town Wisconsin, Sarah wants nothing more than to blend in and lead a normal life away from her abusive brother. Weighing five hundred pounds with no job or formal education makes this impossible though. When the carnival comes to town, the head of the sideshow hears about Sarah and offers her a job as a performer. Despite her desire to escape home, Sarah is repelled by the idea of being made so visible after years of hiding behind closed doors.

When Sarah commits an unthinkable act, however, she must take the only opportunity available to run away from the consequences of her actions. She leaves home, never to return, and performs in the sideshow under the stage name, Lola Rolls. Traveling from town to town, Lola wonders if it is possible to hide in plain sight, and if a person truly can outrun her past. Along the way, Lola also makes lasting friendships, and, as the quality of her performances improve, so too do her ingenuity and her path to self-reliance and self-acceptance.

Set in the late 1970s, When You See Her is an immersive page-turner that explores what it means to be both visible and invisible and desired and reviled, while carving out a space in a too-small world.