An eight-year-old behaves like a walking zombie--but with psychic powers that baffle medical science. These are the mysterious symptoms of Cathypny. The McNair Foundation is a charitable venture set up to treat such cases of abnormal children with powers of thought transference. But, as ex-Superintendent Jimmy Pibble discovers, behind its closed doors stand shadowy figures whose motives are far from charitable . . . and who are prepared to commit fraud, arson and murder to achieve their ends.