Mr. Jones, Richard Gere, is a charismatic and dynamic man who talks his way into a construction-site job, only to spiral into a manic episode and nearly leap from a building, claiming he can fly. He is saved from jumping by fellow construction worker Howard, Peter Jurasik, and taken to a psychiatric hospital.
At the hospital, he is misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, medicated, and released because of space and budget cuts in the hospital run by Dr. Catherine Holland Anne Bancroft. Dr. Elizabeth "Libbie" Bowen [Lena Olin] becomes interested in his case as she struggles with her divorce and other patients.
In the midst of another manic episode, Jones impulsively spends large amounts of money on a date and jumps up onto the stage during a concert performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and starts conducting. Arrested, he is sent back to the hospital and correctly diagnosed by Dr. Bowen as having bipolar disorder, revealing to Bowen and her colleague Dr. Patrick Shaye that he has been in and out of hospitals for twenty years but always refuses treatment for his condition.
Bowen tries to have Jones involuntarily committed for treatment, but benefiting from manic energy Jones is charming and rational during a competency hearing. He apologizes for the incidents at the concert and construction site and challenges Bowen's diagnosis because she has never seen him in a depressive cycle. He is released.
Bowen gives Jones a ride home from the hearing and he flirts with her while she tries to get more info from him about his illness. Jones reveals he resists treatment because he enjoys the benefits of his mania and despite Bowen's efforts to convince him, he stops taking his prescribed lithium.
Howard, [Peter Jurasik], who meets Jones again and is worried about him, contacts Bowen, who discovers Jones severely depressed at his apartment. She helps him check into her hospital.
Bowen begins helping Jones with psychotherapy and he starts to open up. Howard visits Jones and they become friends. Jones rescues Bowen during a violent attack by a patient and they strengthen their bond as she comforts him while he struggles with missing the mania while on medication and life at the hospital.
As romantic attraction between Jones and Bowen grows, she contacts his ex-girlfriend to learn more about his past. Furious at the invasion of his privacy, Jones tries to leave the hospital but Bowen follows him, confesses her feelings for him and they sleep together.
Feeling guilty about the inappropriate relationship, Bowen confesses to Shaye and he insists she stop treating Jones and seeing him at all. Jones is transferred to another hospital but soon checks himself out. Upset over the suicide of another one of her patients, Amanda Chang, Bowen quits her job.
Jones shows up at Howard's house. Howard deduces that Jones is having another manic episode and contacts Bowen, who arrives as Jones heads toward the construction site where he previously tried to jump. This time Jones is able to calm himself just as Bowen shows up. With Bowen's help Jones has finally accepted the need to treat his condition and the two happily reconcile.
