In Los Angeles, undercover officers arrive at a motel where those inside, including Jacqueline Wilson, are trafficking illegal drugs. During a chaotic escape, an officer and one of Jacqueline's accomplices are shot, while two others slip away. Jacqueline is arrested and sentenced to 40 years in a women’s correctional prison for possession of illegal drugs and attempted murder.
Upon arrival at the facility, Jacqueline is strip searched and shared meals with her fellow inmates in the cafeteria. The following morning, the inmates are transferred to the Connorville Correctional Institute for Women, overseen by Superintendent McQueen. There, the inmates are treated to a drag show, though McQueen leaves in disgust. The next day, McQueen reprimands Belle and Pandora, two inmates who helped organize the performance, and he punishes Pandora with solitary confinement after a photograph of her boyfriend is found in her cell.
Shower time brings a tense altercation between Jacqueline and Maggie, prompting McQueen to threaten her with behavioral therapy. Back in her cell, Belle shares her criminal history with Jacqueline, revealing the complex histories that brought them to this place. The following morning, Belle crawls through an air vent to steal food from the staff lounge and passes it to Pandora, who remains confined. In the kitchen, Maggie launches an assault on a staff member, seizes a handgun, and starts a fire in a bid to free herself, but she is thwarted. Although Jacqueline tries to intervene and save the officer, McQueen confines her to the behavioral clinic, where she undergoes shock therapy.
The next morning, Belle makes a second attempt to pilfer food but is caught by a kitchen matron; in the struggle, the matron dies, and Belle is sent to the clinic. Outside, the inmates gather apples as Maggie feigns a medical crisis, then assaults a guard and steals a prison transport truck, which Jacqueline climbs into. The truck carries them to an auto repair shop, where a mechanic helps them escape after an officer spots the vehicle.
On the road, Maggie and Jacqueline wrench a couple’s car and head to a brothel, where Maggie reconnects with her friend, Crazy Alice. Jacqueline calls her friend Sparky to forge fake IDs. One of Alice’s clients turns out to be an undercover officer who tries to arrest them for soliciting prostitution; the two women disable him and slip away.
Back at the prison, Lavelle, one of the inmates who had attempted escape, is released from therapy for good behavior and given a job at the clinic. Meanwhile, Doctor Randolph coerces Belle, who is sedated, into signing a medical form that would permit him to perform “psychological surgery” for parole. Randolph then sexually assaults Belle, an act witnessed by Lavelle. On the run, Jacqueline and Maggie attempt a bank robbery but are beaten to it by a rival gang of male robbers; officers arrive as the women escape.
Jacqueline resolves to return to the prison to free the other inmates, and Maggie eventually agrees to join her. They hijack a prison transport truck and drive it into the compound. Informed by Lavelle about Randolph’s misconduct, Pandora injures herself and is taken to the clinic, where she holds Randolph at knifepoint. Jacqueline arrives and holds Randolph and McQueen at gunpoint. They, along with Belle and Lavelle, attempt to flee, but Pinter, McQueen’s assistant warden, sounds an alarm that draws the attention of the prison officers outside. A fierce shootout erupts inside the facility, during which McQueen and Randolph are shot. The women manage to escape in Maggie’s car and drive off into an uncertain freedom, leaving the prison behind them as the sirens fade.
