Inspired by true events, this is an emotional and deeply moving novel about a black nurse who seeks justice for her patients in the American South. 1973, Alabama. Newly graduated from nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans and dreams of making a difference in the world. At the birth control clinic, she intends to help women take control of their bodies and their lives. Civil goes to visit her first patients, and a dusty country road leads her to a shabby hut where Erica and India live. And Civil discovers with horror that her patients are children, the girls are only eleven and thirteen years old. They have never even kissed a boy yet, but they are black and poor, which means, from the point of view of white social service officials, they are already ready to breed, and therefore need preventive measures. Civil decides that she will fight such injustice, and she seems to be succeeding. It radically changes the lives of the girls, their father and grandmother, but... But the tragedy still overtakes them. Decades later, the revered Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, find peace, and leave the past in the past. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. Which must not be forgotten.