We are introduced in the first minutes of the film to a very happy couple, the proud parents of a young daughter. Next we see them on a stroll along a country road, a speeding car veers dangerously close to the little family, and for a moment it appears that the young daughter is struck by the car. As it happens, the daughter is quite unharmed, but the shock is too much for the mother, who has a nervous collapse. She is taken to a psychiatrical hospital, where she is put under observation by the presiding doctor. The doctor soon develops a not entirely medical interest in his patient, and he conspires to keep the mother in his hospital longer than is maybe necessary.