Ireland, 1939. A sadistic headmaster named Brother John has absolute control over the boys at a church reform school. He soon comes into conflict with a more humane teacher, William Franklin, who arrives at the school having been marked by his experience fighting alongside the Communists in the Spanish Civil War. The conflict between the decent man and the demonic embodiment of a perverse system is gradually worsened for the fact that the boys grow fond of the new teacher. As a result, Brother John only steps up his harsh inquisitional domination over them. He focuses above all on Franklin’s most gifted student Liam...