Scorned and sent away by her parents upon discovering her pregnancy, 17 year old Joan navigates life in a Maternity Home, surrounded by indoctrination, fear, and punishment. While nearing the end of her pregnancy, Joan decides that she would like to keep her baby. She tells the head nun, Auntie, about this, and is told that adoption would be a wiser choice. When Joan goes into labor, she is taken to the hospital, and forcibly sedated during the birth. When she wakes up, her baby is gone, and no one will let her see it. Auntie pressures her to sign the adoption papers. In a moment of desperation and frustration, Joan tries to take her baby home by force. Upon doing so, she is threatened with legal action. Defeated, she signs her child away. As she leaves the hospital, Joan fights to hold her child one time, before it disappears from her life forever.