Alan Wellbeck is a nurse in a mental hospital. His day-to-day struggles with personal feelings and troubled patients provide humour and pathos against the backdrop of a public institution.

Inmates fight, pair off, try suicide and attempt escape at a British reform school for girls.

Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of terror and neglect, with Carlin emerging as an unlikely leader.