The protagonist Andrii Dovzhenko finds out a horrible truth, that has been hidden in USSR for years - most of those accused of «anti-Soviet propaganda» were never sent to prison, but to special psychiatric hospitals with a diagnosis of "slow progressive schizophrenia". Andrii finds himself in a real hell of punitive psychiatry and faces a difficult choice - to cooperate with the KGB and return to his family, or to reveal the truth about dissidents tortured in such psychiatric hospitals. The script was based on the memoirs of Soviet dissidents who faced the brutality of a totalitarian system that used so-called "punitive psychiatry" as a weapon against free thought.

Події фільму розгортаються в 1977 році в Українській РСР. Основою для написання сценарію послужили спогади радянських дисидентів, які зіштовхнулися з жорстокістю тоталітарної системи, що використовувала так звану "каральну психіатрію" – зброю проти вільнодумства.