At Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, wayward girls, pregnant and shrouded in societal shame, are sent away by their families. In the summer of 1970, 15-year-old Fern, pregnant and alone, joins other girls with similar fates, including Rose, who dreams of commune life with her child, Zinnia, a musician planning a family with her baby's father, and Holly, a mute 14-year-old. Their lives are rigidly controlled until Fern discovers an occult book on witchcraft in the library, empowering the girls for the first time. However, with power comes a price, often paid in blood, as they learn that liberation and destruction are two sides of the same coin, and freedom is never without its sacrifices.