A doctor discovers suspicious lesions on Mirielle's skin and admits her to County General Hospital's isolation ward.

Charlie reads aloud a newspaper article about a leprosy patient, and Mirielle realizes the false name printed is her own.

Mirielle is loaded into a locked, windowless boxcar and transported with other leprosy patients across the country to Carville.

Dr. Jack examines Mirielle at Carville and officially confirms she has leprosy, finding seven lesions on her body.

Mirielle attempts to climb the barbed wire fence to escape Carville at night, falls, and breaks her arm.

Dr. Ross visits Mirielle in the Carville jail and persuades her to take a job and contribute to the community.

Sister Verena assigns Mirielle to rotate between the ladies' infirmary, the pharmacy, and the shot clinic.

Mirielle secretly takes stolen iodine pills hoping to cure herself, then develops painful boils and a high fever.

Hector dies from kidney failure, and Mirielle attends his funeral only to be overwhelmed by suppressed grief over her son Felix.

Frank secretly escorts Mirielle out of Carville to New Orleans, where she calls home and speaks with Charlie and Evie.

After a string of negative skin tests, Mirielle receives a positive result and must remain at Carville for at least another year.

Irene is found dead by suicide the day before her planned departure; that night Mirielle reveals her real name to Frank and they kiss.

Mirielle escapes Carville with Sister Verena's covert help but changes her mind at the train station and searches for Jean instead.

Mirielle finds Jean barely conscious among crates at a shipyard and cares for her throughout the long journey back to Carville.

Carville is evacuated and spared from flooding; more than ten years later, Mirielle — now married to Frank — is reunited with her grown daughters.

In 1926 Los Angeles, socialite Mirielle West receives a devastating leprosy diagnosis and is transported against her will to the isolated Carville facility in Louisiana. After a failed escape attempt lands her in jail, she reluctantly accepts work rotations and begins building an unexpected life among the other patients. A string of negative skin tests raises her hopes of returning home, but a positive result after months of progress crushes her optimism and forces her to confront what she truly wants. Tragedy strikes when her closest friend Irene dies by suicide, yet grief opens the door to love with Frank and a deepened bond with young Jean. When Jean goes missing and her daughter Helen falls ill, Mirielle makes a desperate escape that ultimately reveals her priorities have fundamentally shifted. After finding Jean and helping lead Carville's evacuation from a flood, Mirielle discovers she has built a life more meaningful than the one she left behind.

The core journey from diagnosis to a second life at Carville.

Charlie visits Mirielle at the hospital but keeps his distance and secretly slips her a flask of liquor before she departs.

Hector attempts to escape the train at a rest stop in Yuma, is caught, beaten, and returned to the boxcar in handcuffs.

Despite her fear of infection, Mirielle gives Hector water, cleans his wounds, and removes thorns from his body through a handkerchief.

Sister Verena conducts Mirielle's intake at Carville, refuses to use her real name, and assigns her the designation Patient 367.

Jean drops a live tadpole into Mirielle's drinking glass at dinner; Mirielle learns patients need twelve consecutive negative tests to be discharged.

Samuel Hatch tells Mirielle about a gap in the barbed wire fence, and she immediately begins packing three suitcases to escape.

Mirielle and Irene get into a playful fight in the pharmacy, covering each other with purple ichthyol ointment until Sister Verena intervenes.

Mirielle spontaneously offers to cut and style the infirmary patients' hair, lifting their spirits and earning unexpected praise from Sister Verena.

Frank teaches Mirielle to catch bullfrogs in the bayou at night; she upends the boat and falls overboard.

The July Fourth celebration succeeds with a children's treasure hunt, a bullfrog race on the baseball diamond, and dancing to the band.

At a New Orleans speakeasy, Frank cleverly deflects men who mock his hands, and Mirielle finally agrees to dance with him.

At Hector's remembrance dinner, Mirielle confides in Frank and Irene for the first time that her son Felix drowned in a pool.

Mirielle collapses on the observation tower after contracting malaria and is removed from the fever therapy trial as a result.

Frank surprises Mirielle with a private showing of Charlie's old film; when Charlie appears on screen, Mirielle flees the room.

Frank meets Mirielle and Jean at the Baton Rouge train station after Sister Verena's ambulance is turned back, and drives them home as flooding begins.

From the moment Mirielle is forced onto a boxcar with other leprosy patients, her world collides with people she would never have encountered in her Hollywood life. The early days at Carville are marked by humiliations and small rebellions, from Samuel Hatch's tip about the fence gap to Jean's mischievous tadpole prank. Gradually Mirielle finds unexpected joy in the company of Irene and Frank, whether through a purple ointment fight in the pharmacy or a chaotic bullfrog hunt in the bayou. A trip to a New Orleans speakeasy marks a turning point in her relationship with Frank, while confiding about Felix's death over Hector's remembrance dinner reveals how deeply she has come to trust her Carville companions. The shadow of her Hollywood identity persists when Frank screens Charlie's old film and Mirielle cannot bear to watch. When Frank drives Mirielle and a gravely ill Jean back to Carville as floodwaters rise, it becomes clear that Carville has quietly become her true home.

The friendships, setbacks, and everyday moments that shaped Mirielle's transformation.

Charlie's letter arrives at the Carville jail with daughter Evie's drawing depicting Mirielle as a distant, frowning figure holding a cocktail.

Sister Loretta surprises Mirielle during her first work shift by explaining that leprosy is far less contagious than she has always believed.

While Mirielle treats his wounds, Hector reveals he recognizes her as Charlie West's wife and agrees to protect her identity.

Mirielle attends her first What Cheer Club meeting, publicly apologizes for her aloofness, and proposes new events for the July Fourth celebration.

Jean speaks aloud for the first time, telling Mirielle that iodine is the most effective medicine given to favored patients at Carville.

Mirielle sneaks a bottle of iodine pills from the pharmacy and secretly takes two, believing they will accelerate her recovery.

After recovering from iodine poisoning, Mirielle climbs a tree to reach Jean, who admits she does not want Mirielle to leave Carville.

On payday, Mirielle donates her entire first earnings to a collection basket intended to support Hector's family while he cannot work.

On Christmas Eve, Mirielle assists in delivering Elena's baby but is outraged when the healthy newborn is immediately removed from its infected mother.

On Christmas Day, Irene confesses to Mirielle that she sent herself the bouquet of flowers because her son has never contacted her.

The fever therapy trials are permanently discontinued after multiple patients experience worsening conditions and no signs of improvement are observed.

Sister Verena reveals to a bedridden Mirielle that she too was once a mother whose newborn was forcibly taken from her at birth.

Mirielle tracks down Jean's father, who confirms he sent Jean away to protect his other children and his business from the disease's stigma.

Charlie phones to confirm Helen has recovered from scarlet fever and stresses to Mirielle that he has never blamed her for Felix's death.

Aboard the evacuation barge, Mirielle reads Charlie's letter requesting a divorce and realizes she accepts the end of their marriage without anger.

Mirielle's transformation at Carville is driven by a series of pivotal moments of discovery and choice that accumulate across her time at the facility. An early letter from Charlie — accompanied by daughter Evie's telling drawing — forces Mirielle to confront how her own family truly sees her, while a patient's quiet recognition of her true identity reminds her how fragile her carefully constructed disguise is. Small turning points accumulate: Jean's startling first words, a stolen bottle of iodine pills, and Mirielle's public apology at the What Cheer Club all mark her gradual opening up to the life around her. Later, Elena's newborn being stripped from its mother on Christmas Eve and Irene's heartbreaking confession about the flowers crystallize the devastating human cost of stigma. The permanent end of the fever trials, Sister Verena's surprising revelation about her own lost child, and a phone call with Charlie that finally releases Mirielle from guilt over Felix's death all lead her — aboard an evacuation barge — to accept her divorce and fully embrace the second life she has built.