Inside a psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, patients diagnosed with serious mental illness, some convicted of violent crimes, work in an art studio set up within the facility. The film follows several of them as they paint and sculpt, using the sessions as one of the only outlets available to people whose diagnoses include killers, drug addicts, and others society has largely written off. Doctors and staff describe art therapy's role inside the hospital's daily routine, and the camera lingers on finished paintings and works in progress rather than narrating over them. The film stays close to the patients themselves, letting their conversations about their own conditions and histories carry the story instead of outside experts. It is a plain, observational look at a hospital most viewers will never see the inside of, and at what happens when people confined for their illness are also given materials to make something with their hands.