One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a story of the devil-may-care rogue named McMurphy who, after being convicted of a petty crime, contrives to serve his short sentence in an airy mental institution rather than in a prison. This, he soon learns, was a mistake.

He immediately clashes with the authoritarian head nurse, a fierce martinet named Nurse Ratched. Despite Ratched's strict reign, McMurphy quickly takes over the yard, leading others out of introversion, staging a revolt so that they can see the World Series on television, and arranging a rollicking midnight party with liquor and women.

But McMurphy's brash insubordination has its consequences; Ratched ultimately triumphs by subjecting McMurphy to a frontal lobotomy.