Summaries

Synopsis

In 1979, Alice Gould De Almenara (Bárbara Lennie) enters a psychiatric ward. Left at the gates by a man, she is interrogated by Dr. Ruipérez (Federico Aguado), who reads a letter by Dr. Donadío (Lluís Soler). Donadío states that Alice has a penchant for telling lies and make them sound very convincing. Dr Alvar is the head of the institution and is on vacation.Alice insists that she has been "legally abducted" by her husband Heliodoro (David Selvas) so he could seize her riches. Alice says that she has been married for 16 years. Heliodoro only plays poker and polo. Ruipérez claims that as per her file, she attempted to kill Heliodoro 3 times using a poison. She was caught by Heliodoro and Donadio sent her to the hospital. Alice refutes the charges, even though she has an advanced degree in chemistry and can prepare the poison.Alice says that if she was reported to the police, the court would have appointed a guardian for her fortune, which is why Heliodoro conspired with Donadio to incarcerate Alice.

Dr. Castell introduces the facility to Alice, who begins to do investigative fieldwork on the death of Dr. Raimundo García Del Olmo's (Joan Crosas) son Damián. Damian was at the mental institution and somebody killed him.Alice (or Alicia) gets acquainted with Ignacio Urquieta (Pablo Derqui) and the twins (Rómulo (Samuel Soler) and Remo (Samuel Soler)) as well as the Gnome (Luis Sacristán), a sexual molester protected by the Elephant Man (Francisco Javier Pastor), who shows animosity towards Rómulo. Romulo imitates everyone at the facility and Remo doesn't speak at all.Alice attends sessions by Dr. Arellano (Javier Beltrán). Alice claims that she has never been unfaithful to her husband. She is very fluent and erudite in her answers.Alice uses one of her sessions to gain access to the bathroom, where she causes a leak of the toilet. This distracts the caretaker and Alice gain access to the archives room. She gets access to a list of patients on a particular day at the hospital. Urquieta's name is on the list and he was given permission to leave the hospital on the day Damian was murdered.

Running along the primary time-line, a secondary time-line starts in a rainy night, in which a fire and riot take place and a corpse is found in one of the cells. A forensic doctor also comes into action and tries to recreate the steps leading up to the murder. Murder was performed using a shard of glass, but the glass came from the door of Alvar's office, which was many blocks away and has several locked doors in between. It seems the murderer caused the fire to auto-open the locks and divert everyone's attention while he performed the murder.In this time-line Urquieta is incriminated by the cops as his hands are found smeared with blood. He is the only patient allowed to carry a lighter which could be used to start the fire. He is later cleared from suspicions as Urquieta fears water and the path to the shard of glass required passing through open passages exposed to the rain.

In the main time-line, Urquieta is interrogated by Alicia whether if he suffers from schizophrenia, the condition Alice believes Damián's killer suffers from. It starts raining and it becomes evident that Urquieta suffers from an irrational fear of water.Alice tells Urquieta that she is not paranoid and is a private detective who came to investigate Damian's death. Damian was at the hospital over a year ago and the doctors say he committed suicide. She suspects Damian's father's former patient, who wanted revenge in the worst possible way. According to Alice, Dr. Raimundo García Del Olmo was a doctor at the same facility earlier. Dr Alvar knows about Alice's mission at the facility, as Alvar was a friend of Dr. Raimundo García Del Olmo.Urquieta later reveals that Damián was at odds with the Gnome.

Alice follows Gnome into the forest after she sees him molesting a female patient. In the forest Alice finds Romulus, who says that Alice is their mother and will never leave them. Romulus is really protective of Alice.Alicia is hit in the forest by the Gnome, waking up tied to a bed with Arellano telling her she is the presumed killer of the Gnome although she has trouble remembering what happened after the hit. She has memories of Gnome trying to molest her and then being attacked by someone.

Alice personally meets Director Samuel Alvar (Eduard Fernández), claiming that she has already exchanged letters with him upon guidance from García Del Olmo so she could know how to enter the institution. Alvar denies this. Alicia attacks Alvar and tries to escape, only to be sedated.

Alicia tells Castell her suspicions about Damián's murder and asks for a meeting of the medical council. Dr. Raimundo García Del Olmo himself Alice to the hospital on the day of her incarceration. Alvar claims that Alice has been interned upon recommendation by Donadío on behalf of Heliodoro.She claims that she tricked Ruipérez at her first interview and feigned a mental illness to enter the facility. She had met Olmo at the new year gala and had seen news of Damian's death on TV. Heliodoro had told Olmo about Alice private investigative work. Olmo shows Alice a note addressed to Olmo which said "You killed him, not me". It was written by someone suffering from schizophrenia and was sent 2 days after Damian died. The patient who posted the latter had access to leave the facility as the letter from posted from a nearby town.

How García Del Olmo gave her instructions that she should feign a condition of paranoia to be able to enter the facility and how they managed to get Donadío to attest her condition (which she did by talking to him) and Heliodoro to sign the permission to withhold her (she stacked the letter among a bunch of bank papers that he had to sign). She then told Heliodoro that she had to go to Argentina for work.Alice blames Alvar for his liberal policies that led to a sexual predator like Gnome roaming freely and the death of Damian. Which is Why Alvar is afraid of calling the police.

Alvar tells that Alice, offended because the man she chose to marry only wanted her money, tried to kill him by poisoning; Heliodoro, after recovering from a seizure, found Alice hiding poison; and knowing herself caught, she decided to fabricate a private investigator persona.The other doctors insist that Alvar contact Donadio, Olmo and Heliodoro for confirmation of the facts.Urquieta comes forward and says that in the forest Gnome was trying to force himself on Alice. When Urquieta reached there, Gnome tried to run away and tripped and cracked his head open.

Heliodoro is not contactable and Alvar says that maybe Alice killed him before getting her admitted. Donadio is in a conference in Zurich.After failing to identify a man whom Alvar identifies as García Del Olmo, Alice is Electro-shocked, and taken to the Cage, where she becomes convinced that she has been framed by Heliodoro, who hired someone to impersonate García Del Olmo.She tells Arellano and Castell that in case her bank accounts are emptied there can be a plausible explanation for the behavior of Heliodoro, Donadío and Alvar. Castell says that Donadio would have received their telegram by now but has not responded.

Castell confirms that Alvar has been overpaid by Heliodoro for Alice's internment. The amount paid for Alice is 20 times more than the regular fee for the other patients of the hospital. Alvar says that Heliodoro made a generous donation to the hospital. Alvar finds Castell snooping in his office and fires her.Castell finds that Heliodoro's house has been empty for a long time.Alicia escapes from her cell and develops a plan to light a fire while Urquieta frees the rest of patients. Urquieta finds one of the twins dead in a cell, it is becoming evident that the events of the secondary time-line pertain to the aftermath of Alice's plan.Alicia crosses paths with the forensic doctor, who tells her about Rómulo's death. Alicia was at the gate of the facility and about to escape, but decides to go back in.Alicia knocks her down and impersonates her. She cracks the identity of the twin's killer (the Elephant Man). Alicia says that Romulo killed Gnome and Urquieta was lying when he said Gnome died by accident. Elephant Man witnessed it. He killed Romulo for revenge.Elephant man is found with his hands cut from the shard and bloodied. He is arrested.

Cops confirm that Alice's account was emptied.Castell convenes a meeting of the council to discharge Alice. Alice meets with the living twin and reveals that the dead one is actually Remo. Alvar renounces his vote, while the other four doctors clear Alice.Alvar lets Donadío into the room. After the conference he went on vacation with his wife. He simply didn't receive any telegrams from the hospital.To Alice's dismay, Donadío turns out to be the man she identified as García Del Olmo.