This is a powerful dramatisation of Daniel Keyes's perceptive and sad novel. Charlie is a retarded adult who desperately wants to be able to read and write. He undergoes a brain operation which increases his intelligence. Yet such an operation begs many questions—can Charlie's emotional development keep pace with the intellectual? How do the psychiatrists and psychologists view Charlie—as a man or as the subject of an experiment like the mouse, Algernon? And the biggest question of all—will the operation be successful?