Child Bride of Short Creek

Jessie Jacobs and Naomi live in an isolated polygamist community in Short Creek, Arizona, where daily life is dominated by traditional chores and patriarchal rules. Women are expected to serve their husbands and stay away from outsiders, shaping a tightly controlled world. The setting is firmly established in 1953, with little room for outsiders or modern conveniences.

State authorities begin investigating the community's practices of polygamy and child marriages. The group faces growing scrutiny and rumors of raids, while residents try to maintain normal routines.

Isaac, the King family's 19-year-old son, returns home from service in the Korean War and attends his welcome party. At the celebration, he and Jessie feel an immediate attraction and gradually fall in love, challenging their community's norms.

Isaac's sisters drown after being kept from learning to swim, illustrating the costs of the community's strict rules. The event hardens Isaac's doubts about the group's beliefs and polygamy.

King confides in the male leaders that God has instructed him to take Jessie as a wife, adding her to his existing wives. Jessie’s father Jay Jacobs reluctantly accepts this as divine will, setting the stage for an arranged union.

Naomi attempts to flee to Las Vegas to pursue a different life as an actress. She is intercepted by two young men who drug and threaten her, but President King intervenes and returns her to Short Creek, where she is immediately married off to an older man.

Pressure from family and faith pushes Jessie to accept King’s plan to marry her, despite her desire for a different life. She reluctantly goes along with the arrangement, hoping to please her parents and obey what she believes is God's will.

Jessie and Isaac openly confess their love and secretly plan to elope together. Their hopes are dashed when they realize a police raid could descend at any moment, threatening both of their futures.

Armed police move in and the group is raided. Jessie races back to warn her mother and keeps her family safe as the authorities separate women and children to barracks for re-education while the men are jailed.

Two years pass as Jessie, her mother Mary, and other women are shuffled between barracks, awaiting further moves. Jessie glimpses Isaac arriving in a car, reviving a fragile thread of hope.

Mary tells Jessie to run while she still can, acknowledging that their love endures. Jessie runs to join Isaac and the couple escapes together, leaving the community behind to build a new life.