A shoplifter gets sentenced to a women's prison.

The film portrays women who were interned for long periods of time in the 1950s without trial. They were humiliated, separated from their families, their lives torn apart. Their crime was that they were wives, mothers, family members. Nearly 40 years later, the film confronts the former internees with their former prison governor, Piroska. Some of the women have traveled home from abroad to meet their former inmates and confront their former jailer.

After murdering her illegitimate baby, Isabella (Tania Weber) pins the blame on her innocent cousin Consuelo (May Britt). Despite the strenuous efforts of her attorney-lover DeSylva (Ettore Manni), Consuelo is found guilty and shipped to a penal colony along with several other female prisoners.