After two friends return home from the Vietnam War one becomes mentally unstable and obsesses with becoming a bird.

Birdy (Matthew Modine) returns from the Vietnam War scarred from the horrific experiences of battle. He is so damaged by what he saw that he has shut himself off from reality completely, imaging that he is actually a bird.

Birdy is confined to a mental hospital, where the doctors are at a loss as to how to treat him. In an attempt to help, Al (Nicolas Cage), his best friend from high school -- and who was also in Vietnam -- visits him every day to try and get through to him.