Mrs. Soffel

After months bedridden with an unexplained illness, Kate regains her strength in 1901. Motivated by a renewed energy, she begins visiting inmates in the Pittsburgh prison to read Bible scriptures.

Kate begins visiting Ed and Jack Biddle, the inmates convicted of murder, and she feels an immediate mutual fascination. The brothers claim innocence and argue the murder was the work of an accomplice.

Ed reads Kate a poem he wrote, and they share a kiss, triggering Kate's crisis of conscience. She voluntarily stops her daily visits for a time.

During a late-night blaze in the cell block, guards rescue Ed from his burning cell. After the incident, Ed hints at a plan to spring himself and Jack, and he hints that Kate may have abandoned them, prompting her to consider aiding their escape.

Ed later writes Kate a note asking for hacksaw blades to help cut through cell bars for their escape. She agrees to help, delivering the blades despite the danger this places her in.

With Christmas approaching and the escape plan near execution, Kate sends her children away to keep them safe. Ed and Jack prepare to take her with them when they flee.

Ed and Jack overpower the two guards on duty, seize a gun, and break into the warden's home to abduct Kate. They force her to accompany them as they flee the prison complex.

The trio temporarily takes shelter with Jessie’s family, though Jessie urges them to abandon Kate as a liability. Ed insists on keeping Kate with them as they freighthop toward Perrysville and eventually north toward Canada.

In Perrysville, a follower reveals he reported the bounty and that police have their trail. Ed knocks him out and takes his rifle, trying to keep the pursuit quiet from the others.

The trio stops at an elderly couple's farm and is invited to stay. In their room, Ed and Kate have sex, and Ed confesses the murder but asserts Jack's innocence; Kate forgives him.

During the ensuing pursuit, both Biddle brothers are shot, and the group is cornered. Kate tearfully asks Ed to kill her to avoid capture, and he obliges, ending her involvement in the escape.

A member of the posse finds Kate alive in the wrecked sled and she is taken to the hospital, where her eldest daughter visits. Later, she is sent back to Pittsburgh prison, cradling the poem Ed wrote that a friend helped smuggle into her cell.