Gina, the heroine of the novel, says goodbye to her home and the people she loves in 1943, because her father sends her to the famous institute in Árkod. The little fifth-grade high school student is driven to rebel by the harsh world and unusual, cruel laws. But he learns something that makes him stay, and he voluntarily accepts slavery.
How does a fifteen-year-old girl adjust in this world full of adult secrets? Can you believe in the naive student legend, which the girls' imagination weaves around the shape of the statue of the pitcher girl standing in the garden? Maybe he should also write a letter to Abigél, who always helps those in trouble?

Among Magda Szabó's youth works, Abigél Szabó was created relatively late, in 1970, but is perhaps the most successful. The reason for this can be found, on the one hand, in the authenticity, which is strengthened by personal autobiographical elements (in Debrecen, the institute) in addition to the great storytelling, tension creation and character portrayal. A multi-part film version of the novel was made in 1978, the screenplay of which was also written by Magda Szabó. Together, the book and the film made Abigél one of Magda Szabó's most popular works.