At 40, Nonkululeko Ngubeni has worked hard to climb the corporate ladder and now has it all ? a good job as a sought-after Chartered Accountant, the house, her dream car, a healthy bank balance ? and a controlling mother who bleeds her dry every chance she gets. She doesn't mind the black tax; other than her mother, she has five siblings who depend on her, four of them already at college. After all, it is her mother, Rebecca, who bent over backwards to ensure that she reaches this pinnacle in her life. Only if she would stop reminding her of that fact every time her purse starts to weigh a little lighter.

Nonkululeko's life takes a dramatic turn when a new junior employee, Mandla Masuku, shows a romantic interest in her. She has just come out of a tumultuous relationship with a colleague, whose wondering eye led him to date her best friend. Now, the prospect of dating a man almost half her age seems like a rebound that would raise eyebrows, and possibly put paid to a career she has worked hard for all her life. As if that is not enough, a revelation about how her father died over three and a half decades ago, threatens to tear the already thin fabric holding the relationship she has with her mother.

Beneath Her Skin, from the quill of Sukoluhle Nontokozo Mdlongwa, shines the spotlight on the often strained mother-daughter relationships, black tax, romance between an older woman and a younger man, and how family dynamics can drive a caring breadwinner to depression.