The Magdalene convents in Ireland were run by the Sisters of Mercy on behalf of the state. They provided room, board and work as washerwomen to girls sent to them by their families, by orphanages or by other institutions, and considered guilty of illicit behavior. There were no limits to their terms of stay and to the cruelties inflicted on them: you could live and die inside the convents. The film traces the viewpoints of four of these young women in the sixties.
