Sometime in the future, at the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry, seven volunteers submit to a new brain surgery that removes their power of speech but increases telepathic communication. As aphrodisiacs and drugs are introduced to the subjects, an unseen group of students observes the results.

Parodying the slyly erotic style of the sex education film, David Cronenberg’s playful debut draws a straight link to his later masterpieces, where bodily experimentation harbors the promise of personal freedom. Freed from the sterile classroom, Freudian jargon is refashioned to humorous effect.