Chief-Bromden, a long-time patient of the ward, tells the story. The story begins when the chief wakes up on a normal day on the ward, feeling paranoid about everything about the ward, Nurse-Ratched, and the three black boys who help her. The boss is really tall, the black boys make fun of him and make him sweep for them and call him Chief Broom. Bromden is half Indian and pretends to be deaf and dumb, this helps him hear everything that happens on the ward. Nurse Ratched, also called the Big Nurse, enters the ward with a gust of cold air. Bromden describes Ratched as a mean, cold-hearted woman, and often gets really angry. He orders aides to shave Bromden, he begins screaming and hallucinates that he is surrounded by an artificial fog. The assistants then treat him. Bromden regains consciousness in the common room, there he talks about a PR man taking a tour of the department and complimenting the department. But this time there is someone who interrupts the tour, it is Randle McMurphy, the main character. He's very confident and has a really brassy voice. McMurphy laughs at the patients because they are stunned by his entrance, this is the first real laugh the ward has heard in years. McMurphy is a large red-haired man who wears motorcycle caps almost everywhere and wears dirty work clothes, claims to be a gambling madman and to have been transferred from a farm. He meets Billy Bibbit, a baby-faced man who stammers, and Dale Harding, the president of the Patients' Council. McMurphy checks the common room. Patients are divided into two main categories: Acute and Chronic. The acute ones are those who can be cured and the younger and newer patients, but the chronic ones are... in the center of the paper... who talk about old memories and how safe it feels in the ward when the smoke machine is on . At the next group meeting Bromden says the fog is so bad he can't see anything or anyone, but McMurphy has another vote and gets all 20 high hands in the air, but McMurphy needs 21 hands in the air, so McMurphy goes to almost everyone. chronic and ends with the narrator Bromden. Bromden then finally raises his hand but the nurse says the vote is closed. In the afternoon, when patients are supposed to clean up, McMurphy says it's time to play. Then he turns on the television but the nurse cuts off the power, McMurphy doesn't move from the chair. The other acute ones go and sit with him looking at the blank television screen. The nurse yells and screams at them telling them they are breaking the schedule. McMurphy won the bet, the Big Nurse lost her temper...