Within the padded walls of a military hospital sits Birdy, utterly silent. But who is to say that he's really mad? His sub-standard army psychiatrist still hasn't caught on that his patient seems to think that he's a bird, and recruits Birdy's childhood friend to try to get through to him. Out of a young man's need for escape and his consuming obsession with birds and flight, William Wharton has spun a dazzling story shot through with humour, wisdom, tenderness, tragedy and longing.