The Nature of the Beast explores the life and case of a woman, Bonnie Jean Foreshaw, who was subjected to years of abuse, as a child and in three separate marriages. At the age of thirty-eight, Ms Foreshaw was found guilty of first degree murder when, in a moment of panic, she accidentally shot and killed a pregnant woman in an attempt to protect herself from a man who was physically assaulting her at a gas station in Hartford, Connecticut. Both her assailant and victim were complete strangers to Ms. Foreshaw. Although the man later testified in court that he had pulled the pregnant woman in front of him as a shield when he saw Ms. Foreshaw take out her hand gun, she was nevertheless found guilty of pre-meditated murder. Ms. Foreshaw is now serving the longest prison sentence of any woman in Connecticut—45 years—without the possibility of parole.