Nightmare in Badham County

Cathy and Diane, two UCLA students, are driving across the country when a flat tire forces them to stop in a rural Southern town. A local man named George helps fit a spare tire, but Sheriff Slim Danen's presence immediately casts a shadow over the situation. The encounter foreshadows the hostility the women will face in the town.

Back on the road, the women rebuff Danen at a roadside diner while their car is being repaired. They are told the fuel pump needs replacement, adding to their mounting frustration. After the repairs, they leave the shop and camp in the nearby woods, unaware of the danger ahead.

That night, Danen arrives and arrests the women for trespassing and remands them to the county jail. The abrupt arrest shatters any sense of safety they had on their trip. The sheriff's overbearing behavior foreshadows the cruelty to come.

Inside the jail, Danen assaults Diane in a separate cell while Cathy witnesses the attack from a nearby cell. The brutal act marks a turning point and exposes the depth of the town's corruption. Cathy is left traumatized by what she sees.

At the next day’s hearing, a corrupt judge orders heavy fines for car repairs. Diane tells the judge that Danen raped her, while Cathy feels powerless and overwhelmed. The hearing seals their criminalization and deepens their fear.

After the hearing, Cathy and Diane are sent to Badham County Farm, a prison farm run by Superintendent Dancer and three guards. The facility quickly reveals a culture of abuse, control, and dehumanization. The women's sense of safety collapses as they confront harsh conditions.

Cathy discovers that housing is racially segregated, with her placed in a white ward and Diane in an all-black ward. She witnesses guards humiliating inmates and using racial slurs. The environment underlines the systemic cruelty of the facility.

Diane forms a tentative bond with Sara, a longtime inmate who becomes her ally. Cathy’s sentence is extended by sixty days after a fight in the fields, increasing her time behind bars. The two women's situations grow more perilous as time passes.

One day Cathy and other inmates are allowed to leave for the day to serve drinks at an elite party under Dancer's supervision. Cathy tries to call for help from the guests and staff, but no one responds. Dulcie warns Cathy after she writes down her parents' contact information, and Smitty and Greer threaten her later that night.

After attempting to contact her family, Cathy is confronted by Smitty and Greer who tighten their control over her. Dulcie expresses sympathy but remains constrained by orders from above. The episode marks a turning point in the daily brutality faced by the inmates.

Diane attempts to flee by hiding on a bus taking visitors back to town, but is caught and placed in solitary confinement. The desperate bid to escape highlights the women’s dwindling options. The isolation compounds the trauma already inflicted by the guards.

Delivering produce at the farm, Cathy writes down her parents’ contact information for a potential lifeline and hopes the note will reach them. A sympathetic waitress later remembers Cathy and Diane from the diner and provides a path to contact them. The waitress’s memory becomes a fragile thread of hope.

Cathy and Diane devise an escape plan centered on retrieving Cathy's car in town. Diane distracts Danen by speeding the car, giving Cathy time to call her parents. The plan seems to work, but Diane goes missing in the confusion.

Cathy's father arrives the next day to pick her up and she demands that Diane be freed, but Danen and Dancer deny knowing anything about her whereabouts. Cathy is released, but the fate of Diane remains unresolved at this moment. The town's truth lies just beneath the surface.

After Cathy is freed from the farm, she runs to the work fields with her father and finds Sara. Sara contends with Greer and, in a brutal confrontation, Greer is killed. Sara tearfully explains that she witnessed workers burying Diane's body in an unmarked grave.