本片再现了悲剧人物弗兰西丝的人生遭遇,作为一名极有潜质的女演员,她因不甘老板摆布,不愿充当为好莱坞老板赚钱的机器,于是被打入冷宫,连一个小角色也演不上。生活的多方磨难,使她性格大变,最终在与警察的冲突中被强送入疯人院,在那个非人的地方,忍受了8年。她反抗、喊叫,换来的却是脑垂体被切除。1970年,她因癌去世。Frances Farmer, a precocious Seattle teenager, takes unpopular social and political positions, to the mixed reactions of her parents. Frances becomes an actress and has some strong success in New York, but her refusal to bend her convictions and her outspoken (but sometimes naive) political expressiveness cause her difficulties, especially after she accepts a Hollywood contract. Torn between new-found success and intense feelings that she does not deserve the riches and fame she gains from the phoniness of Hollywood, Frances butts heads with studio executives and with her own mother, who revels in Frances's fame but provides Frances no emotional support. When drunken fights and arrests derail her career, Frances is sent to a psychiatric hospital with the acquiescence of her mother. What follows is a nightmare of poor treatment and psychological trauma, augmented by the increasing determination of Frances's mother to control her daughter's life.