1938. Victoria, a widow of a Spanish Republican, is confined in Saturraran prison along with her sister and her son. This women's prison, looked after by Mercedarian nuns, was the stage for one of the darkest chapters of the Spanish Civil War. And Victoria experiences the horror of it first hand. The "White Panther", director of the center and instigated by the theories of Dr. Vallejo, snatches the children out of the hands of their mothers, the women prisoners, justifying that "it is the best for Spain". Victoria, driven to desperation by the loss of her child, stands up to the White Panther along with the other inmates, suffering unbearable punishment and humiliation, attempts to escape, and, finally, learns to survive with the hope of reuniting with her son.