At a Canadian mental institute in the early 1960's, American doctor Alex Gage dreams of making substantial changes: giving patients decent living conditions, reducing violence on the wards, and eliminating prefrontal lobotomies as the go-to procedure for difficult cases. But when a series of assaults on female patients and nurses turns lethal, and the director of the institute shows signs of his own mental instability, Alex may be in over his head. The feeling only worsens when a co-worker begins blackmailing him over a misdemeanor from his youth. Alex has to confront his own morals and weigh his obligations as a psychiatrist against the continued personal risk to his life in Canada if he wants to succeed at the institute.