 To make a little extra money to cover rent, Clare Newell volunteers to do a psychology study into the effects of mild electric shocks on recall. Although she doesn t really understand what the study is about, all psychobabble really, she is comfortable with doing it. Professor Jakob Farley is running the experiment, and is the model of the authority figure. He explains to Clare that every time the subject of the study, Holly Monroe, gets a question wrong, Clare must give her an electric shock, and keep going til Holly gets the right answer.