When Anya is arrested at a Moscow anti-corruption rally under false pretences, she is sentenced to a 10-day stretch at a special detention centre. Her cellmates are five other ordinary women all arrested on petty charges. The women come from all strata of Russian society and get to know each other as they talk over plastic cups of lukewarm tea.

Ten listless days stretch before Anya, and as she appeals her sentence, she recalls the disappointing love triangle in which she was once enmeshed and her progress from apolitical youth to informed, outraged citizen. Soon, Anya is troubled by strange, dreamlike visions, and wonders if her cellmates might somehow not be as ordinary as they seem. A brilliant exploration of what it means to be marginalized both as an independent woman and in an increasingly intolerant Russia in particular, The Incredible Events in Women''s Cell Number Three introduces one of the most urgent and gripping new voices in international literature.