The following version of the book was used to create this guide: Tedrowe, Emily Gray. The Talented Miss Farwell. HarperCollins, 2020.

In Emily Gray Tedrowe's The Talented Miss Farwell, the protagonist, Becky Farwell grows up living a banal midwestern life. Determined to never experience the same financial hardships as her father, Becky works to make something of herself. However, Becky gets caught in her hometown of Pierson, Illinois, when she puts off dreams of college, feeling bound to her father's care. Her new job as Town Hall bookkeeper offers momentary satisfaction. Not long later, though, she runs into a former classmate in town, and starts feeling lonely and discouraged. She stumbles into a gallery afterwards and falls in love with a painting. Desperate to own the piece, she steals money from a Pierson account to buy it.

Becky's one-time impulsive theft soon grows into an embezzlement scheme, which she nicknames the Activity. For months, she reallocates town money to an account she renames RF Capital Development. Eventually she has thousands of dollars with which she plans to grow her art collection.

She travels to Chicago for an expo and tries to buy a coveted Eric Fischl painting. After failing to secure the piece, she comforts herself by drinking heavily. At the bar, she meets an art collector named Mac. Mac promises to teach her everything she needs to know about the art world. Becky is immediately impressed by him. He calls her Reba, allowing her to believe in an alternate version of herself. Over the course of the next year, Becky travels back and forth between Pierson and Chicago. In Pierson, she keeps up her small town vibe, impressing everyone, and growing RF Capital. In Chicago, she becomes known as a young budding collector. She meets countless prestigious collectors and artists. Eventually, she buys a condo in the city where she can hide her expanding collection.

The Activity rapidly becomes an obsession. Despite the fatigue of living a double life, Becky refuses to give up her endeavors. She does not even tell her best friend Ingrid about her Chicago existence. Then one year, Pierson enters a prolonged state of financial crisis. Though Becky knows the town's economic depression is her fault, she still does not abandon the Activity. Instead, she befriends the mayor, Ken, and invents ways to act as the public hero. After a fundraiser, a coworker appears in her office, threatening to turn her in. Becky blackmails him, and avoids detection.

In the years following, Pierson's financial circumstances worsen. Becky continues stealing money, addicted to her ritzy life in Chicago and New York City. Then, during a meeting with Ken and a team of lawyers, Ken realizes what Becky is doing. Because he has made sexual advances in the past, he does not turn her in. Two years later, Becky swears after procuring the final piece in a collection, she will be done with her lies and games once and for all. She makes herself sick pursuing the piece, and misses days of work. While she is out, coworkers discover the truth of her crimes. She is arrested, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Even while serving time, however, Becky refuses to acknowledge all the pain she has caused.