Ben is a patient in a psychiatric ward. As he is being questioned by Carl, a psychiatrist, the landscape of Ben's family life emerges. The centre of his life is his love for his daughter, Sara, who was born brain damaged.

Carl succeeds in getting Ben to describe those times in his life which have been both painful and pleasureable, and these are portrayed through flashback scenes behind a shadow screen. We never actually get to see Ben's alter ego, Jenny, Sara, or the other minor characters face-to-face, they are merely shadows in his mind, as well as on the stage.

As the years go by, the difficulties of bringing up a severely disabled child both medically and socially, whilst trying to maintain both careers and a semblance of conventional life, causes a deepening rift to develop between Ben and Jenny. The culmination of their plight is the breakdown of their marriage, then separation and custody hearings. For Jenny, this is absolutely the right thing to do; for Ben, it's his worst nightmare.

Carl finally teases out of Ben the horror in his life that he can't face up to, and the reason for his incarceration. Ironically though, it is this same horror that has the effect of dramatically changing Jenny and Sara's lives forever.