In the 1950s, Andy—a quiet, introverted young man—works at his father Frederick’s ice rink, a job that follows the brutal arc of his family history: his mother was institutionalized and lobotomized, a fate he fears as much as he preserves. When Frederick dies suddenly on the ice, Andy encounters a family friend, Dr. Wallace Fiennes, the man directly responsible for his mother’s lobotomy. Wallace invites Andy to travel with him, casting him in several roles—photographer, journalist, and assistant—as they move from place to place in search of new subjects.
The journey is spare and unsettling. The duo travels from asylum to asylum, with Wallace performing lobotomies while Andy reluctantly documents what he witnesses. At night, Andy tries again and again to contact his mother’s spirit through a planchette, a ritual that blurs the line between superstition and perception. On one stop, a woman tells him that her daughter Susan is a patient at their next destination. There, they meet Jack and his daughter, Susan, whose defiant streak has drawn the attention of the staff. Jack asks Wallace to operate on Susan, hoping to quell her rebelliousness. While Wallace prepares his instruments in the next room, Susan seduces Andy and they share a moment of intimacy. The interruption is swift and clinical, and Wallace proceeds with the lobotomy.
That night, Andy slips away and hitchhikes back to Jack’s house, where Jack—drunk and fiercely passionate—rants about life and art in a mingling of French and English. Susan shows a tenderness toward Andy after he touches her, complicating the young man’s loyalties and desires. At the next institution, Andy witnesses a subordinate patient being dragged along the hallway by attendants, and he mirrors the outburst by smashing chairs and shouting. Wallace questions him, and Andy confesses that Susan was his first sexual encounter, that his dreams feel real, and that he believes his mother’s spirit might be speaking through the planchette. In a pivotal turning point, Andy submits to the lobotomy himself.
Wallace drops Andy back at Jack’s home and leaves. Later, Andy and Susan attend one of Jack’s music therapy sessions, a ritual that underscores the haunting connection between art, trauma, and control. Andy then takes Jack’s car and drives Susan down a snow-covered mountain road. They come to a halt, and Andy steps out into the cold, shivering as he gazes up toward the mountain’s peak, a final, ambiguous image of a life altered by the events they’ve shared.
