A young woman, Kaysen, finds herself at a renowned mental institution for troubled young women. Her prescribed ''short rest'' becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she spends nearly a year on the ward both flirting and struggling with the thin line between normal and crazy. Kaysen soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she's been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong on the inside or the often difficult world of reality on the outside.