A middle-aged alcoholic is sentenced to six weeks in prison for a minor offence. While there he undergoes psychiatric treatment for his alcoholism and is committed to a hospital for the criminally insane for the duration of his sentence. However, under Section 27A of the Queensland Mental Health Act, he can be detained indefinitely until the hospital authorities declare him eligible for release. A human being trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare, he emerges forcefully as a man with no illusions either of himself or about the people around him.