Helga and Zander Quinn elect a nine-month rotation working at Currituck Penitentiary. On the island there are draft dodgers, deserters, illegals, and people who make a living in the grey area of the law—and those are the people not in prison cells. Wardens had come to understand during the height of the United States' second Civil War, no one in their right mind wants to work with war criminals. But someone has to staff it. Helga works in the infirmary, where she notices a pattern of inmate mistreatment. But why should she stick her neck out and risk losing their newfound haven? She and Zander have their own issues to work through. After all, they're just prisoners.