This innovative book tells the powerful stories of convict women, while drawing out broader themes of gender and sexual disorder and race and class dynamics. It looks at the cultural meanings of aspects of life in the colony: on ships, in the factories and in orphanages. Damousi considers such topics as headshaving as punishment in the prisons, as well as analyzing the language of pollution, purity and abandonment. The book shows how understanding about sexual and racial difference became a focus for cultural anxiety in colonial society.