Following the brutal 1954 murders of two children in Sioux City, Iowa, police attempted to quell public hysteria by arresting 20 men whom the authorities never claimed had anything to do with the crimes. Labelled as sexual psychopaths these gay men were sentenced to a mental institution until 'cured'. Shedding a harsh light on 1950s attitudes toward homosexuality, this carefully researched account of this horrendous event shows how the paranoia of the McCarthy era destroyed the lives of gay men and exposes a dark chapter in the history of post-war America.