Meet Patricia, she's sixteen and pregnant. It's nineteen-fifty-seven, and she is living in Southern Island.
She has been taken by her parents, to Bessborough House, which sits on the outskirts of Cork city. It is a home for unmarried mothers, and is run by Catholic nuns, who are cruel and vicious in their treatment of the girls who are incarcerated there.
Unable to cope with the shame of their neighbors finding out about their unmarried daughter's pregnancy, Patricia is left there, after being told she can return home once the baby has been adopted. Something she doesn't want.
Life within the walls of Bessborough is a harsh reality. The girls who are sent there, are overworked and undernourished, and many mothers and babies do not survive. Others, who cannot cope are sent to the local Asylum, never to be seen again. This will become Patricia's biggest fear.
Patricia's baby is taken and given up for adoption by the nuns, without her consent. Heartbroken, she is finally allowed home. Go forward thirty years, Patricia is living in England. She is divorced with two grownup daughters, who know nothing about their mothers past.
A letter arrives, and Patricia is forced to relive the pain and devastation of her past, but with unexpected results.