In vil­lages inhab­it­ed by India’s Muslim minor­i­ty in Tamil south­ern India, as soon as a girl reach­es puber­ty she is locked away until her wed­ding. This was Salma’s fate when she turned thir­teen. Hungry for an edu­ca­tion, she avoid­ed an arranged mar­riage for nine long years by keep­ing her­self con­fined in a bare room. When she final­ly agrees to wed local politi­cian Malik, she finds her­self impris­oned once again – this time in her husband’s home where the only things she has to read are news­pa­pers wrap­ping the veg­eta­bles. Clan­des­tine­ly, she begins to write poetry which her mother helps her smug­gle out to a pub­lish­er. Her life changes com­plete­ly when her poems are pub­lished, and she final­ly trav­els to Chen­nai for the first time. Now a well-known poet, she begins to apply for gov­ern­ment posi­tions, and inspires her sis­ters and other women also to fight for their free­dom and inde­pen­dence. For, she argues, it is the mutual oppres­sion of women by other women that per­pet­u­ates the status quo.