This is the story of Nellie Bly (5th May 1864 - 27th January 1922) who was a newspaper reporter for the New York World ahead of her time. She would stop at nothing to get her story getting herself committed to an asylum for the insane and a women's prison in order to uncover the terrible conditions and treatment of the inmates. 

When she came across Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days she wagered that she could do it in less than that maintaining, "a woman can do anything and go anywhere in perfect safety as long as she behaves in a ladylike manner."