Women of a Promiscuous Nature

Ruth Foster is a young woman in North Carolina during the 1940s. One morning, the local sheriff stops her on her way to work. He forces her to go to a health clinic for testing or face arrest. Ruth ends up being one of dozens of women wrongfully imprisoned for being "promuscious". Their crimes? Living alone or eating alone in a restaurant, running a business, or being victims of rape. Neighbors, husbands, or strangers reported some of the women. Some faced accusations of prostitution, while others were attractive and unmarried, or poor and considered "suspicious."

The story is told from three points of view: Ruth, a fellow detainee named Stella Temple, and the Colony's superintendent, Dorothy Baker. As a result, you see the Colony from both sides: what it's like to be locked inside and how the person running it justifies her actions. The book follows the women as they try to survive the institution and resist it.

It's historical fiction based on the long-buried history of the American Plan, a real government program that regulated women's bodies and sexuality through the first half of the 20th century.

Penguin Random House / Kensington | Jan 27, 2026 | 368 pages | ISBN:9781496740724 |Historical Fiction