Beneath the remnants of a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, thirty-nine women endure their existence within the confines of a vast cage, safeguarded by silent men in uniform. None recall their former lives, bearing only fractured memories of a time past. Amidst them lingers a young girl without a history, isolated, yet carrying the latent potential to upheave their reality. As the stifling routine of artificial days bleeds into artificial nights, the girl, the fortieth captive, contemplates her purpose in a ravaged world devoid of intimacy and freedom. When change inevitably arrives, chain reactions provoke shifts in their burrowed life, sparking a quest for self-reinvention and the embrace of a terrifying liberty. Jacqueline Harpman's 'I Who Have Never Known Men' unfolds as a profound exploration of humanity wrestling with the chains of enforced estrangement, and a testament to the indomitable drive to reclaim one's destiny.