 The story compresses the many years it took Sigmund Freud (Montgomery Clift) to evolve his psychoanalytic theories into what seems like a few months. Almost every neurotic symptom imaginable conveniently manifests itself in one (composite) patient, Cecily Koertner (Susannah York). She is sexually repressed, hysterical, and fixated on her father. And so Freud goes to work, developing one hypothesis after another. Also shown is Freud s home life with his wife Martha (Susan Kohner), whom he alternately discusses his theories with and patronizes when she reads one of his papers.