Set in the Radium Dial Company on the outskirts of Chicago, These Shining Lives is inspired by the true story of Catherine Donohue, who painted watches with a mixture of water, glue, and radium powder – all for eight cents a watch. Catherine’s is a story of survival, of how she and the other women refused to allow the company, which stole their health, to kill their spirits or endanger the lives of those who came after them.