lana winters, an ambitious journalist, is sent by her paper to report the commitment of serial killer "bloody face" to briarcliff sanitarium. sister jude martin, the asylum's authoritarian administrator, does not take a liking to lana or her questioning. unknown to anyone, jude harbors sexual feelings for the sanitarium's founder, monsignor timothy howard, who is an ambitious priest aiming to become pope. at the sanitarium, the alleged murderer is kit, accused of skinning three women – including alma – alive. he is being held pending determination if he is sane to stand trial. kit denies ever killing anyone, blaming alma's disappearance instead on extra-terrestrials, which jude does not believe.