Charlie Gordon is a 32-year-old man with an intellectual disability. He works as a janitor in a bakery run by his uncle’s friend, Mr. Donner. He also attends classes three times a week at the Beekman College Center for adults with intellectual disabilities (the full name of the establishment refers to “Retarded Adults”), where he studies writing, reading, and other skills with his teacher, Miss (Alice) Kinnian. He lives alone and has not had contact with his mother, father, or sister in many years.

He has been selected for an experimental procedure that will attempt to eliminate his intellectual disability. Early experimentation on a mouse, Algernon, appears to have been successful. Charlie’s determination to raise his intelligence convinces the research team to choose him for their first experiment on a human being. They are honest and tell Charlie that they are not sure if the experiment will work or permanently improve his intelligence. They ask him to write down journal-like progress reports (which he spells “progris riport”) to track his thoughts, feelings, and memories. The research team, composed of Dr. Strauss, Professor Nemur, and a graduate student named