The pills cause vivid hallucinations of a parallel hyperreality, filling the Oswald Asylum with smears of blood, mysterious messages, grisly torture, human subject research in psychology and neurology, and otherworldy shadow beings. Driven to escape her imprisonment, find her cat, and return home, Fran passes into this other world. Still searching for an explanation of her parents' murder, Fran finds herself transformed into a tree in a world called Ithersta, a land where vegetables and roots live in harmony.