A therapist is spilling his guts, pouring out his story to his former mentor. The cases are horrific. The heartbroken teenager not allowed to see or hold the baby she bore from her father's rapes, the young man whose mother suicided when he was nine, the woman petrified by the snakes and rats she sees crawling on her ceiling. Under all the stress and with no support from his boss, the therapist, Cyril, has a breakdown. But he comes back and tries to help one last patient.

Tillie is a brilliant young woman, selfish, reckless and obnoxious, but also touching and courageous. She can't forgive herself for alienating her husband through her many scrapes and blunders, her bizarre terrors, and the psychotic crisis when she thought she had to be a saint in order to keep existing. At times, she has fits of sobbing, bitter rages and storms of self-abasement. Cyril is torn by emotions he barely understands when Tillie wants to quit the treatment.