As part of a psychological research project, twenty recruits will be divided up into prisoners and guards. In a controlled penitentiary-like environment, "prisoners" are incarcerated and ordered to obey the rules, "guards" are instructed to keep order. They will be thrown head-first into a two-week long examination of the effects of assigned roles, power and control, and won't be the same when it's over. But it's just a simulation. Or is it?