Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, "Cuckoo’s Nest" centers on Randle McMuprphy, a free-spirited, rebellious con man, sent to the hospital from a prison work farm, and his interactions with other patients such as Chief Bromden, Billy Bibbit, Dale Harding, and Charlie Cheswick, and the tyrannical head "Big Nurse" Ratched. The title of the book is a line from a nursery rhym.