Have you ever wondered how society decides which women are “dangerous” and deserve to be locked away? Donna Everhart’s Women of a Promiscuous Nature isn’t just a historical novel—it’s a haunting excavation of a real, systemic injustice that reframed female independence as a disease needing cure.
Women of a Promiscuous Nature exposes the brutal reality of the American Plan, an early-20th-century government program that unjustly imprisoned thousands of women and girls for “moral hygiene,” told through the interlocking stories of a zealous reformatory superintendent and the vulnerable lives she controls.
Women of a Promiscuous Nature is best for readers of powerful historical fiction like The Four Winds or The Girls, anyone interested in women’s history, social justice, and stories of institutional cruelty and resilience. Not for: Readers seeking a light, plot-driven romance or those sensitive to detailed depictions of emotional abuse, medical trauma, and sexual violence.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Women of a Promiscuous Nature is a 2026 historical fiction novel by Donna Everhart, published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
Known for her Southern-set, character-driven stories like The Saints of Swallow Hill, Everhart here turns her unflinching gaze to a dark and often overlooked chapter of American history: the state-sanctioned detention and “reform” of women deemed promiscuous or morally deficient.
2. Background
The novel is rooted in the historical “American Plan,” a government program initiated during World War I and expanded in the decades that followed.
Under laws like the Chamberlain-Kahn Act of 1918, authorities were empowered to detain women suspected of spreading venereal diseases to protect military personnel.
In practice, this meant any woman—whether a sex worker, a single woman living independently, a rebellious teenager, or a victim of assault—could be arrested, subjected to invasive exams, and imprisoned without trial in facilities like the “State Industrial Farm Colony for Women.”
Everhart uses this framework, citing real documents in her epigraph, to explore how morality, medicine, and misogyny intertwined to control women’s bodies and freedoms.
3. Women of a Promiscuous Nature summary
The narrative opens in 1931 at Samarcand Manor in Eagle Springs, North Carolina. Dorothy Baker, the superintendent, prides herself on running a tight ship aimed at “reclaiming” wayward girls.
She discovers materials for arson—matches, lighter fluid—hidden by the girls. Despite her efforts to interrogate them, she fails to stop the inevitable. That night, the girls set the dormitories on fire.
Baker watches her career burn along with the buildings, haunted by her own childhood trauma involving fire. Disgraced, she is forced out, retreating to her childhood home to care for her mother.
Fast forward to 1941. Baker is given a second chance. Her friend Eloise tips her off about a job at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women in Kinston. Baker takes the job, determined to implement her “Day One” reform program and prove her worth.
We then meet the victims of this system. First is Stella Temple, a fifteen-year-old girl from Deep Creek. S
tella is a tragic figure; her mother, Alice, is mentally ill and drug-addicted, and her father, Cordell, is a sexually abusive monster who has been raping Stella for years. When Stella becomes pregnant, her parents take her to a doctor to “fix” her.
The doctor arranges for her to be sent to the Colony. Upon arrival, Stella is surgically aborted and sterilized without her full understanding. Desperate for approval and safety, Stella bonds with Mrs. Baker, seeing her as a savior compared to her parents.
Then there is Ruth Foster, a twenty-four-year-old who lives alone and works at a diner. Her independence makes her a target. The local sheriff, Luther Wright, arrests her simply for walking to work, citing “public safety”. She is forced to undergo a humiliating pelvic exam by a doctor who declares she has syphilis—a diagnosis Ruth vehemently denies.
She is shipped off to the Colony, where she is stripped of her identity and forced into “meditation” (solitary confinement) for trying to leave.
Life at the Colony is a cycle of hard labor, “vocational training” (essentially unpaid maid service), and painful medical treatments involving mercury and arsenic injections.
Ruth eventually finds a rhythm working in the kitchen, where her cooking skills earn her some respite. Stella, meanwhile, becomes Baker’s “pet,” acting as a snitch/spy for inmates to gain favor.
Tensions rise as the inmates reach their breaking point. Frances Platt, a tall, “feebleminded” girl who is actually just traumatized and misunderstood, becomes a catalyst for chaos. After a failed escape attempt into a barbed-wire ditch (the “Clap Trap”), Frances is subjected to harsh discipline.
The turning point comes when Baker demands the women write “letters of commendation” to the board to help secure funding for new dorms. Ruth refuses. Baker, furious at Ruth’s defiance, decides to break her. She resets Ruth’s time at the Colony to “Day One” and forces her into solitary confinement.
When Stella tries to teach Frances the alphabet, she realizes Frances isn’t unintelligent; she’s playing a game. Stella forges a bond with her. However, Mrs. Maynard, the sadistic housemother, discovers a paper with alphabet practice on it.
Stella claims Frances wrote it; Maynard accuses Stella of lying. Baker, caught between her “pet” and her staff, decides to make an example of Stella to assert authority. She orders a “group punishment” where other inmates must hold Stella down while Maynard whips her.
Ruth tries to intervene but is struck herself. The brutality shatters Stella’s faith in Baker.
At the Colony, the women wear identical brown dresses and endure a grueling schedule of farm labor, domestic work, and vapid classes. Baker’s rule is absolute, enforced by housemothers like the cruel Mrs. Maynard. The inmates form a fragile community: Lucy Griffin, a witty, defiant sex worker who repeatedly tries to escape; Josephine Littles, a boarding house owner wrongly accused of running a brothel; and “Freaky Frances” Platt, a deeply troubled young woman whose outbursts mask a cunning intelligence.
The climax mirrors the beginning. Frances Platt, pushed too far and seemingly enacting Stella’s wish for revenge, sets the Colony dormitories on fire using gasoline. Baker confronts Frances amidst the flames. Frances whispers, “Tell Stella her wish came true,” before disappearing into the smoke. The dorms are destroyed.
In the aftermath, with nowhere to house the women, the board agrees to discharge them. Baker, facing another professional failure and a probationary period, decides to flee.
She contacts a friend and secures a job at a facility in Alabama. She manipulates a terrified Stella—who fears being sent back to her abusive father—into coming with her. Baker passes Stella off as her “niece”.
Ruth returns home, scarred but free. She learns about the “American Plan” from a lawyer, Stanley Newell, and realizes the legal system offers no justice for women like her. She finds her own peace in independence.
The novel ends with Ruth reading a newspaper article hailing Dorothy Baker as a “heroine” who saved lives during the fire. Furious, Ruth writes a rebuttal letter to set the record straight, reclaiming her voice even if the world isn’t ready to hear it.
4. Women of a Promiscuous Nature analysis
4.1. Women of a Promiscuous Nature Characters
Dorothy Baker: A profoundly complex antagonist. Her trauma (burn scars, a cheating husband) fuels her mission, making her not just cruel but tragically self-righteous. She believes she is saving society and the women themselves, stating her purpose is “to restore them to the pristine nature of their Southern womanhood” (Page 15).
Her occasional flashes of kindness toward Stella reveal a desperate need for validation, making her a compelling study in how pain can be recycled into tyranny.
Stella Temple: Her arc is a heartbreaking exploration of how abuse survivors seek safety in authority, even when it harms others. Her eagerness—“I only want to do what I’m supposed to and be what Mrs. Todd said I could be.
Restored to proper womanhood” (Page 35)—shows how the system coopts a victim’s desire for redemption. Her breakdown is the moral turning point of the novel.
Ruth Foster: Represents the independent woman deemed a threat by the patriarchy. Her intelligence and spirit are systematically broken down, first in solitary (“Meditation is intellectual and spiritual purification. That’s what I think,” Baker says and then through debilitating medicine. Her decision to escape is an act of reclaiming her autonomy.
Lucy Griffin: The novel’s resilient heart. A sharp critic of the system, she tells Ruth, “They ain’t got no right to do what they’re doing, and that bitch, Baker, she knows it”. Her humor and defiance provide crucial resistance, highlighting that some spirits cannot be fully “reformed.”
4.2. Women of a Promiscuous Nature themes and Symbolism
Systemic Misogyny and Control: The novel’s core theme is how legal, medical, and social systems collude to punish female sexuality and independence. The Colony itself is a symbol of this machinery, a “prison in disguise” (Page 46) that operates under the benevolent guise of help.
Trauma and Complicity: Baker is a victim of trauma who perpetuates it. Stella, also a victim, becomes a tool of the system. The novel asks: in a broken world, how do the abused avoid becoming abusers?
Fire: A potent symbol. It represents both destruction (the Samarcand fire, Baker’s childhood scars) and a cleansing, rebellious force (the inmates’ act of protest). Baker is both terrified and hypnotically drawn to it, symbolizing her repressed trauma and the dangerous allure of absolute control.
The “Cure” as Poison: The mercury injections are a literal and metaphorical representation of the American Plan. The “treatment” for a dubious diagnosis is itself a poison that destroys health, hair, and teeth, mirroring how the state’ “cure” for “promiscuity” destroys women’s lives.
5. Evaluation
Women of a Promiscuous Nature is a formidable and important novel—a meticulously researched, emotionally devastating indictment of institutionalized misogyny that resonates with chilling relevance today.
Strengths:
Impeccable Research & Immersive Detail: Everhart seamlessly weaves historical fact into narrative, creating a world that feels terrifyingly real. The details of daily life in the Colony, from the scratch marks in solitary to the taste of pasty grits, are visceral.
Nuanced Characterization: No one is a mere caricature. Even Baker evokes a sliver of pathos, while the inmates are portrayed with immense dignity, variety, and depth.
Pacing and Narrative Tension: The shifting perspectives between Baker, Stella, and Ruth create a powerful, suspenseful dynamic. The reader is simultaneously inside the mind of the oppressor and the oppressed.
Weaknesses:
Unrelenting Darkness: The novel’s grim atmosphere is necessary but can feel overwhelmingly bleak with minimal respite or hope.
Underdeveloped Subplots: The fates of some compelling secondary characters, like Josephine and her boarders, are left somewhat vague, leaving the reader wanting more closure on their stories.
Impact
This book leaves a profound mark. It’s the kind of story that sparks outrage, fuels research into the real American Plan, and fosters a deep empathy for the countless real women whose lives were erased by this system.
Comparison with Similar Works:
It sits alongside Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls in exploring female trauma within historical institutions, and shares the moral complexity and Southern Gothic texture of Ron Rash’s novels (who provides a cover blurb).
Its focus on medical injustice calls to mind Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder.
6. Personal Insight & Contemporary Relevance
Reading Women of a Promiscuous Nature in the 2020s is a stark reminder that the control of women’s bodies remains a fierce political battleground.
The American Plan may be history, but its philosophy—that women’s sexuality is a public health issue to be regulated by the state—echoes in modern debates. Consider the ongoing attempts to criminalize abortion and even travel for reproductive care, or the disproportionate policing and incarceration of women of color and sex workers.
A 2025 study by the Sentencing Project highlights that women are the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population, often for non-violent, poverty-related offenses, a direct lineage from the “moral crimes” of Everhart’s era.
The novel teaches a crucial lesson: systems of control often dress in the language of safety, morality, and help. Baker genuinely believes she is saving Stella and Ruth, a terrifying parallel to how restrictive policies today are often framed as “protecting” women or children.
Everhart’s work compels us to scrutinize who holds the power to define “promiscuity,” “health,” and “virtue,” and to remember that today’s “reform” could be tomorrow’s historical horror.
It underscores that bodily autonomy is not a niche issue but the foundation of personal and political freedom.
7. Women of a Promiscuous Nature quotes
- “It is the philosophy they helped to cement: that women and promiscuous people are dangerous and morally inferior; that they need to be stopped, locked up, and reformed.” (Page 11, Epigraph)
- “Her troubles can be taken care of and I can arrange it. She’s salvageable. She can be fixed.” (Page 28, The doctor on Stella)
- “Meditation is intellectual and spiritual purification. That’s what I think. What do you think?” (Page 58, Baker to Ruth)
- “They ain’t got no right to do what they’re doing, and that bitch, Baker, she knows it.” (Page 68, Lucy Griffin)
- “You’re here, so something’s wrong with you according to her and them so-called experts who help her run this place.” (Page 69, Lucy to Stella)
- “It was him. It won’t me. I sure couldn’t stop him.” (Page 123, Stella’s confession)
8. Conclusion
Women of a Promiscuous Nature is a masterful, gut-wrenching, and essential work of historical fiction.
Donna Everhart does not offer easy answers or neat endings, but she delivers something more valuable: a stark, unforgettable mirror to a past that is not past at all. It is a tribute to the invisible women of history and a formidable warning for the present.
Recommendation: Highly recommended for book clubs (it includes discussion questions), students of women’s studies and American history, and any reader who values fiction that challenges, educates, and leaves you breathless with its emotional power. This is not an easy read, but it is an indispensable one.
Final Reflection: This book’s significance lies in its fearless excavation of a buried truth.
In giving voice to the Stella Temples and Ruth Fosters, Everhart performs an act of literary justice, ensuring that the cruelty of the American Plan is remembered not as a dry historical footnote, but as a visceral human tragedy that we must guard against repeating.
