A depressed woman, Barbara, is on the verge of suicide while a man she meets in a church and a married couple try to convince her that life is worth living.

A group of insane asylum inmates flee a broken-down bus and occupy a nearby farmhouse. As they form a collective threaded by bizarre exercises and slapstick setups, the film spirals out into a freewheeling comedy of disorder, told with unusual verve and intensity, and featuring a dissonant, if deranged, soundtrack by free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman and his trio.