Betty Garde

Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.

A gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her sentence is up?

In early 1900s, an Oklahoma gambler-casino dealer teams up with a saloon dancer and together they seek a new life in a Colorado mining town where their relationship and respectability are tested.