AllMovie

Frigyes Karinthy (Zoltan Latinovits) is a Hungarian Jewish writer who begins to hear the sound of an oncoming train in this head. When the sounds reoccur, he goes in for a series of medical tests that reveal a brain tumor. He travels to Stockholm where he undergoes surgery with a local anesthetic. The operation scene provides a surrealistic dream sequence where a circus clown puts together a complicated machine. The writer then sees himself as an aristocratic judge who comments on his own writing and has flashbacks of his childhood. As he recovers, he spends the next two years completing the novel that is the basis for this film.