Beau Bridges returns to the Catholic boarding school from which he graduated to take a job as the gym instructor. In this seemingly innocent atmosphere, Bridges is caught up in the inexplicable conflict between two of his former teachers: Robert Preston as the popular English instructor, and James Mason as the hated Latin teacher. The corridors, crypt and chapel of the cloistered institution are now charged with a mysterious malevolence spontaneously erupting in a plague of senseless, resistless violence.