Carrie Buck, a young woman living in early-twentieth-century Virginia, is raped and becomes pregnant by a family member--and her trauma is only beginning. She is deemed a "deviant" for having a child out of wedlock and, for that reason, is a candidate for sterilization. Louisa Van Patten, a New York socialite, is an advocate of the eugenics movement, which promotes this punishment. When Carrie and Louisa meet, along with journalist Ben Newman, during a national debate about the merits of forced sterilization, all their lives--and ours--are changed forever. Paula Paul's historical novel offers a thrilling story based in extensive research into a little-known, but devastating, part of American history.