In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. However, the case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. This chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them. How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be “saving the children” when it readily exploits them? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable?