It’s 1972. William is a creative boy in a dead-end job, his dream of becoming an artist fading fast. So when his best friend hatches a plan to raise money for art school, William leaps at the chance. The only problem is, he has to get through Franco’s fascist Spain with a suitcase of drugs first.

Like most things in William’s life, the plan goes wrong and he is thrown into the notorious Modelo jail in Barcelona. Abandoned by friends and family, unable to speak the language, surrounded by hardened criminals, lost hippies and brutal prison guards and with no idea when, if ever, he will be released he quickly spirals into depression.

It is only when he begins to sketch his visions and nightmares that William starts to deal with his remorse and self-hatred. But it is the facing-up to long-repressed childhood memories of abuse, neglect and poverty that ultimately leads to his redemption … and freedom.