First, high school senior Andy Koops barely reacts to his father's suicide. Then, in college, a manic episode lands him in a state mental hospital. After three years, he's still hospitalized, and worse, he's trapped on a locked back ward by a sadistic psychiatrist, Dr. Enzo Gambelli. Drugged, depressed, and demoralized, Andy is on the verge of becoming a chronic mental patient when he's befriended by a maverick social worker who challenges him to choose: does he want to stay a patient or go home. Andy chooses home and battles Gambelli for his release—but he has no idea of the evil he is about to encounter.