In the late 1950s, when her husband Max takes up his post as deputy director of a remote psychiatric hospital, Stella Raphael and her young son, Charlie are brought to live on the grounds of the asylum. Stella is soon drawn to charismatic inmate Edgar Stark. Undeterred by the warnings from her husband's colleague, Dr Cleave, Stella is prepared to risk everything to be with Edgar. Their passionate affair escalates as obsession begins to threaten Stella's love, her sanity and her very life.
