The book is based on a series of diary entries of eighteen-year-old Akhtar Baloch, who was arrested for staging a hunger strike in Hyderabad against the brutal crackdown on students and activists protesting against the then military regime of Yahya Khan (1969–71). It comprises the author’s experiences during her year-long incarceration at Hyderabad and Sukkur jails of Pakistan in 1970. Initially locked up in the Hyderabad Jail, Baloch continued with her hunger strike, which resulted in her being sentenced to a year’s imprisonment at the Sukkur Jail by the military courts. Powerful and inspirational, Baloch’s story provides an unparalleled insight into the fabric of the Pakistani society of that time as portrayed through the women prisoners’ tales of hardship and injustice.