A modern Scheherazade in New Orleans in 1984. Alone. Abandoned in New Orleans with no friends or family, surviving only on her wits, Pearl Caldwell has finally put herself back on the road back to the life she wants. Then she's arrested on a false charge and thrown into jail. Among women of all sorts, Pearl finds a strength she never knew she had and a voice to tell her own story -- and the stories of the other women in the Orleans Parish jail.