Put into a state of electronic hypnosis, The Prisoner is brainwashed and given a new identity. An exact double enters the Village to assume The Prisoner's old identity. When the two of them meet, the bewildered Prisoner summons all of his willpower to fight against the steadily mounting evidence that he is someone else.

The Schizoid Man has been said to be an allegory of the trials of modern man must face in maintaining one's identity in a technological society and its brilliant special effects remain as futuristic today as when the first aired in 1968.