Özet: In New Orleans in 1937, a rich widow, Mrs. Venable, plans to fund a hospital building for a state asylum, if Dr. Cukrowicz will perform a lobotomy on her niece Catherine. Mrs. Venable is distraught over the death of her son Sebastian last summer in Europe. Sebastian and his mother used to travel abroad together every summer, except the previous summer, when he took his cousin Catherine instead. Catherine appeared to go mad the day that Sebastian died under mysterious circumstances.
