The year is 1950. The place is Hillside State Mental Hospital, a dark brooding
place, located outside of Chicago. At the time, the treatment of the mentally
ill is archaic, consisting of Hydrotherapy, Electro-shock and Insulin Coma
therapies, and, in the extreme, Pre-frontal Lobotomy. Tranquilizers and
anti-psychotic drugs have not yet appeared.
In this atmosphere of hopelessness and despair come student nurses from nearby
hospitals for their three-month psychiatric rotation. Mary Lou Hammond and Kate
Stephens are two of these young girls.
Mary Lou is extremely sensitive. She begins dreaming about a woman in the early
part of the century. The dreams tell a continuing story. Soon Mary Lou finds
messages in mirror image writing from Margaret Montague, the woman in her
dreams. She claims to have died at Hillside in 1911. If this entity does exist,
what does she want from Mary Lou?
As the students go from one terrifying experience to another in the
institution, Mary Lou's dreams intensify, and so do the messages. Kate fears
that her friend is losing contact with reality.
Mary Lou becomes obsessed with finding proof that the woman did exist as the
story escalates to its life-threatening climax.
