Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is an ambitious psychiatric resident who has been asked to evaluate the case of anthropologist and primatologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins). A noted scientist, Powell vanished four years ago while studying the reclusive mountain gorillas in Rwanda. When a group of park rangers discovered Powell living among the gorillas, he turned on them, brutally murdering two of the rangers.

Sedated and shackled, Powell has retreated into himself and won’t speak to anyone. Increasingly frustrated by Powell’s silence, Theo turns to Powell’s estranged daughter, Lyn (Maura Tierney) for help. As Caulder begins the task of trying to understand Powell, he becomes overwhelmed by his story and the tables turn so that instead of psychiatrist and prisoner, it becomes student and teacher.