A precocious and imaginative 12-year-old boy is placed in the Adolescent Unit of a psychiatric hospital against his will in Scotland in the late 1960s at a time when psychiatrists had the power to section anyone and keep them there as long as they wanted. Having entered the hospital as a happy 12-year-old, he becomes more and more depressed the longer he is kept there. He tries to find solace in a relationship with a girl who is a fellow-patient, but their relationship is put a stop to by the staff and he attempts suicide several times. Having spent two and a half years there, he is eventually released shortly after his fifteenth birthday, but, in the end, he runs away from home at the age of 16 and ends up on the streets of London with no money and without knowing anyone.