Hungarian director Janos Szasz based this film on a famous 1837 German play, changing the alienated title character from a soldier to a railroad worker. Woyzeck (Lajos Kovacs) is a slovenly flag man in a Budapest railroad yard. At work he is harassed by his boss, an army captain who makes him run errands, shave him, and sweep the tracks constantly. At home he is cuckolded by his wife Marie (Diana Vacaru), who finds a policeman more exciting than her dull husband. Woyzeck's only friends are a homeless boy, a doctor who uses him for bizarre experiments, and a tattered Bible. As his humiliation increases, Woyzeck decides that it's time to make some changes in his life.