 When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the bedroom wastebasket of a young novitiate, psychiatrist Martha Livingston (Fonda) is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice (Tilly), who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby. While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr. Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the truth about the baby s conception and death. Despite the lack of cooperation that she receives from her own organization and the church, itself, she eventually discovers more than she may have bargained for.