A free spirited young woman in 19th century Finland arrives at a women’s isolated Island, a destination for troublesome females. With her freedom taken away, she must adjust to a new life in confinement and after numerous failed attempts to escape, she eventually resigns herself to her fate. She even forms close bonds with the other patients, and falls in love with a local fisherman, but the divide between patients and local islanders is not traversable and all seems to lead to a tragic end.