The game's plot is inspired by the real-life string of Magdalene Laundries, specifically those in Ireland and Australia. Named after the Biblical figure Mary Magdalene, these were Protestant or Roman Catholic institutions ostensibly designed to house "fallen women" (i.e. sexually promiscuous women, prostitutes, young women who became pregnant outside of marriage, or young girls and teenagers who did not have familial support) by taking them in, or occasionally kidnapping them, and forcing them to work in laundries commercially-run by local nun convents under poor conditions and exploitative abuse.

A series of paintings by Rachael Romero, an Australian girl who fled from her abusive father and for a time worked in a Magdalene Laundry in the city of Adelaide, inspired the overall design of the game's laundry room and general aesthetics. The room, and certain objects such as a machine and a wooden basket, were also directly based on pictures from these laundries.