 Susanna Kaysen has an affair with one of her families male friends. she tries to kill herself and after a quick talk to a psychiatrist she gets admitted to the private mental hospital Claymoore to relax for a while. she gets diagnosed with "borderline" who is a condition which can fit the general teenage girl. At the hospital she meets many different characters.Like daisy who is sexually abused by her father, Georgina who is a pathological liar, Polly who got a serious burn injury as a young child and Janet Webber who is anorectic, but the character she gets the best contact with after a while is Lisa. Lisa is a sociopath and has been in and out of Claymoore in 8 years. Even though Lisa is the harsher of them all she has a way of being friends with them to, and since she has escaped the hospital a couple of times she has no problem finding her away to offices and other rooms. Susanna finds it hard to stay at the hospital so one night Lisa convinces her to escape. They are going to Disneyland Florida. Lisa wants to get the job as Cinderella and she do believe that Susanna can be snow-white. On the way they stay a night at Daisys apartment (Daisys father meant she was healthy and checked her out of the hospital) were Daisy and Lisa gets into a discussion that ends with Daisy hanging herself from the shower pole. This breaks Susanna down and she gets back to the hospital, but Lisa Escapes. After a long time the police finds Lisa again, but this time she is different. After an 18 month stay Susanna gets to go home. and by the 70 mostly of the patients at the hospital gets to go home, some of them Susanna meets again.