Based on a true story, Wayward Girls is a haunting but thrilling tale of hope, solidarity, and the enduring strength of young women who find the courage to break free and find redemption…and justice. In 1968 we meet six teens confined at the Good Shepherd—a dark and secretive institution controlled by Sisters of Charity nuns in Buffalo, NY—locked away merely for being gay, pregnant, unruly, and sometimes even none of the above.

Mairin is a free-spirited daughter of Irish immigrants, committed to keep her safe from her stepfather. Angela is denounced for her attraction to girls, sent to the nuns for reform, but instead found herself the victim of a predator. Helen is the daughter of intellectuals detained in Communist China, she saw her “temporary” stay at the Good Shepherd stretch into years. Odessa is caught up in a police dragnet over a racial incident, she found the physical and mental toughness to endure her sentence. Denise is sentenced for brawling in a foster home, she dared to dream of a better life. Janice is deeply insecure, she couldn’t decide where her loyalty lay—except when it came to her friend Kay, who would never outgrow her childlike dependency. Sister Bernadette, rescued from a dreadful childhood, owes her loyalty to the Sisters of Charity even as her conscience weighed on her.