The series is set in the early 20th century, and the procedure causes the woman in question to have a large patch of exposed flesh, where the skin is taken from.
Rhinoplasty is as old as sixth century B.C. India surgeon Sushruta used to do rhinoplasty using skin from the forehead, He'll mark the skin about the size of the nose in the forehead which will be mirror image of the nose about the line that passes both eyes, then he'll cut it and simply fold it downwards and will attach that skin to the nose.
He has mentioned various methods including sliding graft, rotation graft and pedicle graft. Reconstruction of a nose (rhinoplasty) which has been cut-off, using a flap of skin from the cheek has been described. Labioplasty too has received attention in the samahita.
Yes. This technique was pioneered during World War I on injured soldiers with grievous facial wounds. It was a founding technique of plastic surgery and is used today. What they would do is cut a strip of skin from, say, the stomach, leaving one end still attached so it would continue to have a good blood supply. The sides of it would be sewn together to make a tube. The free end would be attached to an area of skin closer to the final destination--the nose in this example. Once a good blood supply became established at the upper end, the lower end would be severed and the flap of skin would be folded over and sewn to a new area of skin closer to the final destination. With each move of the flap of skin, it would have one end attached to a new location, while the other end would stay in the old location to ensure a good blood supply. In this way, the flap of skin (pedicle) can be moved from anywhere on the body to anywhere else on the body in stages.