Calling himself Prot (pronounced PrOHt, not PrAHt), this man claims to be from another planet. Not an uncommon delusion perhaps, but Prot’s insistence on the existence of K-PAX, his home planet, and his ability to back up his claims has a dozen professionals baffled. Powell thinks that Prot is burying some sort of trauma deep down, deeper than even the man himself can reach, causing a complete break from reality. But Prot knows planetary information no one on Earth can know, speaks with dogs, appeared in the city out of thin air, and is beginning to convince the other patients that he will take one of them into space when he returns, on a date in late July. Powell feels convinced that he must help Prot before that day comes, at the risk of disastrous repercussions.