Perhaps the only image more devastating than that of a child bride is that of a child widow, head shaven, dressed in white, ostracized, and forbidden to remarry. Phaniyamma (1870-1952) was such a child, married at nine and widowed six months later. Her story is a legend in the village of Hebbalige in Malnad, Karnataka, and in it director Prema Karanth finds a compelling tale of a woman who translates her own oppression into triumphant rebellion against the degradation of others. From a bitter adolescence, Phaniyamma grows into a sullen and austere young woman. But with time, she finds her place in the community: that of a kind of helper-agitator who serves others while refusing to acknowledge reactionary taboos of caste. At the age of seventy, she champions the cause of a sixteen-year-old widow who openly rebels against the degradations imposed upon her by superstitious elders. Director Prema Karanth writes, "My film is about Everywoman--the two faces of a woman, submission and revolt, expressed through two characters."