Dramatized account of Dr. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard's efforts to civilize a young boy who was discovered living wild in a forest. The boy, named Victor, becomes increasingly divided between his longing for the wilderness and his new life with the doctor. Itard, whose teaching strategies survive today in the Montessori Method, is unsure whether he is helping a savage become human or turning a forest child into a semi-civilized idiot.