First published 2026
Ruth Foster walks to work at her usual diner in 1940s North Carolina when the local sheriff stops her. He forces her to visit a health clinic for mandatory testing that targets young, unmarried women living alone. Despite having never been intimate with anyone beyond a chaste kiss, Ruth finds herself imprisoned at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women by day's end. The facility houses dozens of women accused of promiscuity, including fifteen-year-old Stella Temple, whose own family requested her commitment. Superintendent Dorothy Baker runs the colony with iron discipline, believing she transforms wayward women into respectable citizens through medical procedures and rigid training programs. Women who break Mrs. Baker's rules face solitary confinement and brutal work details. Ruth discovers that survival requires either complete submission to the system or finding ways to resist. She joins other inmates who refuse to accept their fate, determined to reclaim their freedom regardless of the personal cost.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, abuse, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, resistance
Setting: North Carolina, State Industrial Farm Colony for Women
Period: 1940s
368 pages · Paperback · Kensington
Content warnings: abuse, medical-trauma