The Proving Grounds takes place in a small Pennsylvania coal town in 1966. Sixteen-year-old Rose, whose mother is mentally ill and institutionalized, is seduced by a coal miner. Rose becomes pregnant and is struck by an illness no one can understand. Rose's grandmother, Margaret, is her caretaker but she's at a loss to help Rose. What can she do but side with the doctors who label Rose a product of her mother's insanity? Extreme treatments begin --- treatments like intravenously induced intoxication, time spent alone in darkened rooms, and overdoses of Thorazine. Rose has to fight for herself and her baby. Fighting means learning the surprising secret that caused her mother's illness, how it has affected her, and how to convince the doctors her illness is real.