The year is 1928, and the Philadelphia Athletics are on the verge of supplanting the New York Yankees as the greatest baseball team the sport has ever known. How much easier their job would be if something catastrophic should befall the Yank's star player, Babe Ruth. Which it will, if Ruth's former minor league roommate and nemesis, embittered, shell-shocked World War I veteran Nick Hudson-who sometimes hears voices and sees things that don't exist-can execute his warped and devious plan.