Summer, 1954. US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient – a murderess – as a hurricane bears down upon them.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient, or to look into rumours of drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves against Soviet brainwashing?

Or is there another, more personal reason he has come here? As the investigation deepens and the questions mount, Teddy and Chuck begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island – because someone is trying to drive them insane….