Cal Bradley runs a highly-respected psychiatric clinic in New England. He was brought up in the town and has followed his father's footsteps in being a philanthropic citizen. He and his wife, Marie, are as much in love as they were when they first married and share a contented life with their three children. He is living the American dream. Then he agrees to give free treatment to a badly disturbed young man, Peter Blue, who he believes to be of no threat to anyone but himself. Peter disappears one night but Cal finds him in the mountains above the clinic and doesn't have to institute a search for him. A few hours later the body of a stranger is discovered close to where he found Peter and he is unable to prevent him being taken into custody. He is sure Peter is not a killer and he knows confinement will push the young man into taking his life. As he sets out to prove his innocence and get him released, he discovers the murdered man is not such a stranger, but to expose the identity of the real killer will destroy him.
Nathan Conrad es un psiquiatra neoyorquino habituado a explorar las mentes perturbadas de sus pacientes. Un dia, su hija de cinco años es secuestrada. Conrad y su esposa no pueden avisar a la policía porque tienen el teléfono pinchado por los secuestradores y son presa de la desesperación al no saber cómo buscar a la niña. Sin embargo, se darán cuenta de que todos estos acontecimientos guardan relación con una de las pacientes del doctor Conrad: una joven catatónica llamada Elizabeth, que les proporcionará la clave para salir de esa horrible pesadilla. El director Gary Fleder se ha basado en esta novela para su película Ni una palabra, protagonizada por Michael Douglas.