The vagaries of the professional life.
An intellectual doctor, longing to find an equal, engages with a young mental patient in order to restore his earlier hopes for life, unaware that his actions will allow his assistant to take everything from him.
In early 20th century Russia, over a twenty four hour period, a middle aged asylum doctor, risks everything to engage with the one man in town, who having been just brought in from the local prison, matches him intellectually. Unfortunately this man is insane and this leads to an opening for the doctor’s assistant, to steal his job, his home and his reputation.
Dr Andrei, a local asylum doctor, with not a want in the world, save from some intellectual company meets a young patient, new to the ward, transferred from the prison to the asylum. In just one night and day, this new meeting of great minds leads to the unscrupulous doctor’s assistant using the unusual relationship between doctor and patient, to at first remove the doctor from his position and then finally to have the doctor committed where he dies an ignominious death in just 24 hours.