It's 1986 in Achi, Nigeria. Eighteen-year-old Ijeoma is forced to undergo the brutal act of tribal cutting as a condition marriage to a superstitious and abusive man. Despite her husband's threats, she vows the same will never happen to her daughters. Desperate to prevent their sexual mutilation, Ijeoma escapes to New York, where she is ultimately arrested and detained while she awaits a deportation hearing that could send her and her daughters back to Africa and to her husband. Ijeoma is the story of a teenage girl coming of age in a male-dominated culture. It becomes a chronicle of will and determination in the face of overwhelming adversity. This is a tale, based on true events, profiles a mother's courage to save her daughters and control her destiny.