ROBERT BLOCK (50), a psychiatrist and analyst, discovers that his young wife CAROLE (30) is having an affair with a much younger man. Totally overwhelmed by the situation, his obsession with it prevents him from concentrating on his patients until LEO DEBOND (40) appears on the scene. Leo is a depressive and psychotic bachelor who has never got over an unhappy love affair with an actress fifteen years previously. Secretly identifying himself with Leo, Robert listens to him with a mixture of compassion and disgust, and when Carole lets him know that she is going to leave him for good, Robert realizes that Leo will provide him with the perfect means of relieving his suffering.