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It's October 26, 1916.

Inside a shabby rundown building in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn,

a group of women listen intently as a dark haired young nurse

talks to them about their reproductive health. The speaker is Margaret Sanger,

the woman who recently opened a birth control clinic in this building,

the first of its kind in the United States. It's a daring enterprise,

the publication or circulation of information on birth control and abortion is deemed obscene

and illegal. Margaret knows that if the authorities learn about the clinic's existence,

she and her colleagues will be arrested. But as she scans the desperate faces of the

clinic's visitors, their eyes imploring hurt to help them gain control over their bodies,

Margaret is reminded that it's worth the risk. There must be nearly 100 women in the clinic this

morning, all anxious to learn more about how to safely avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Margaret cuts her eyes across to the front door, where a young woman dressed in a fur hat and

overcoat has just shuffled in off the street. The woman looks around her with the same lost

and frightened expression that Margaret has grown accustomed to. The young woman approaches Margaret

and asks in a timid voice if this is the Brownsville birth control clinic. Margaret nods and smiles

reassuringly, but then the young woman's expression shifts. Her eyes narrow and a look of

indignation spreads across her face. She reaches into her coat and removes a tin whistle.

Margaret realizes with a stab a panic that this young woman is no patient,

...