The well respected Judge Daniel Adams is murdered in the mid-1950s, seemingly by his daughter Carrie. Police officials circumvent their own investigators and have her committed to the Elm Hill Psychiatric Hospital for Women, instead of being arrested. However, Carol Mason, Director of Nursing, spots several clues which indicate that Carrie may be innocent and that people in the hospital are involved in a cover up. She works to solve the murder and uncover Elm Hill's dark secrets with an informal team of associates who call themselves the "Black Angels." Their efforts uncover a conspiracy of sex and greed that explains the murder of Judge Adams and culminate in a night of discovery and danger for Nurse Mason and Andy Russell, a university student who is her temporary assistant, in Elm Hill's Violent Ward.