A drama about Friedrich Hölderlin, a poetic genius caught between madness and withdrawal from the world. "Scardanelli" was the pseudonym used by Hölderlin during his years of seclusion in Tübingen, where he lived from 1807 until his death in 1843.
A young woman travels with her partner to England on the unexpected death of her brother. Staying with her sister-in-law, she finds her companion soon drawn into a satanic cult based in the house whose rites seem to centre somewhat on large-scale sexual congress.
The Bed opens with Jamie, a young man, looking round an old, deserted country house. Through flashback we see Jamie as a boy, scared out of his wits when his older sister and her boyfriend, left alone in the house to babysit Jamie for the evening, play cruel tricks on him.