A novelist struggling with writer's block enlists the aid of an assassin for some inspiration -- fully unaware that he is being set up to take the blame for a murder.

A Russian billionaire is brutally killed on the outskirts of Moscow. Vasily, a simple school teacher becomes an unwilling witness to this murder during his routine morning bike ride. The police, unable to find the criminals, begin to suspect Vasily and he quickly becomes the prime suspect. At the advice of his daughter, who also happens to be his attorney, Vasily allows himself to be placed in a psychiatric ward to avoid being incarcerated for the false accusation. It is believed that a fictitious diagnosis will help her father's case, but Irina doesn't realize that she has handed her father into the hands of a psychiatrist, Dr. Korzunov, who is conducting inhumane experiments that no medical professional would ever accept.