AllMovie

Doctor Pulder is bored with his life as a rural family physician. The visit of an old friend, now a famous neurologist, excites him greatly. The morning after the visit, however, he discovers that his morphine supply is gone, thanks to his old friend's growing addiction. Shortly afterward, the addicted neurologist dies. Pulder is transformed by these events and leaves his wife and children to move in with the addict's mistress. She is both an addict and an alcoholic, and the doctor is fascinated by the depravity of it all. His life, too, begins a downward spiral.