On a Mediterranean island, an honorable doctor hides a hunted criminal. The doctor is soon hunted by a police commissioner.

The wife of a physician who diligently cares for the poor, grows weary of their dull South France factory town and pressures her older husband to move to glorious Nice, on the Mediterranean. Dr. Valerio particularly empathizes with Sandro, the farm foreman for the town's wealthy factory owner, Gorzone. Sandro's preoccupation with caring for his ill wife, Magda, angers Gorzone. As the only local physician, will compassionate Valerio abandon his patients, and give in to his young wife's bourgeois values?—David Stevens

Dr Valerio lives an exemplary life, caring for his patients, supporting his blonde wife on her quests to improve living conditions for the poor along the French Mediterranean coast. In a series of personal experiences that world of Dr Valerio crumbles. The wealthy landowner is ruthless and imposes on Dr Valerio's employed nurse. The nurse's husband is Dr Valerio's friend Sandro. Dr. Valerio falls in love with Clara in his wife's absence. They meet at first secretly during the night. When Sandro's wife dies despite the Doctor's care, Sandro takes revenge on the landowner and shoots him. Dr Valerio tries in this situation to keep his doctor's oath and tries to save as many lives as possible, first treating the landowner and then offering refuge to Sandro. The police are searching for Sandro. The police constable is particularly thorough. In the meantime Dr Valerio separates from his wife. The sanctity of life and the social contract between the people are endangered during this last night in the small French village. At the end of the night there is the dawn of day. Before dawn the fishers set off to sea and the murder will be solved by yet another bloodshed. Dr Valerio and Clara walk off into an uncertain future.