Nurse Charlotte Beale arrives at the isolated Stephens Sanitarium to work, only to learn that Dr. Stephens was murdered by one of the patients and his successor, Dr. Geraldine Masters, is not very eager to take on new staff. Charlotte finds her job maddeningly hard as the patients torment and harass her at every turn, and she soon learns why Dr. Masters is so eager to keep outsiders out. Written by Matthew Patay Dr. Stephens runs a secluded sanitarium with a small group of mental patients, one of whom uses the ax that was supposed to be for therapeutic wood-chopping to cut down Dr. Stephens. Now, Dr. Masters is running the asylum alone with her brand-new nurse, who does her best to befriend the eclectic group of patients: the shell-shocked ex-sergeant; the lobotomized Popsicle-sucking child-man; the puritanical former judge; the doom-dealing old woman; the would-be mother to a baby doll; the giggling, clown-haired prankster; the needy nymphomaniac; and the mainly catatonic young woman who occasionally indulges in knife attacks. The pretty young nurse was eager to work with the forward-thinking Dr. Stephens, but finds his successor to be less than welcoming and the hospital to be less than wholesome.
