Dr. Peter Cleave is passed over as candidate superintendent of a greater London mental asylum by newcomer psychiatrist Max Raphael, whose wife Stella soon falls in carnal, later true love with Cleave's favorite patient, trustee gardener Edgar Stark, a kind-mannered would be-artist who murdered his wife in bloody rage but also befriends the Raphael's angelic son Charlie. Edgar escapes in Stella's car trunk and hides in his former art studio assistant Nick's London home. Stella neglects her family to visit Edgar, even moves out without Charlie. Cleave finds them and brings them back. Max resigns and takes a job in a desolate Welsh village and tries to rebuild a family life, but trough disinterested Stella's neglect, Charlie drowns, with grave consequences.—KGF Vissers