This play is classed as a dramatic comedy and is set in the 1960's in the day room in a ward of a State Mental Hospital in Oregon U.S.A. It has strong language and adult themes.

It is set around a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an arty mental institution rather than a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse, a fierce disciplinarian. Quickly, he takes over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for tweleve years, making a presumed deaf and dumb Indian talk. He heads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the world series on television, and arranges a rollicking midnight party with liquor and chippies. For one offense, the head nurse has him submit to shock treatment. The party is too horrid for her and she forces him to submit to a final correction - a frontal lobotomy.