Hans Barlach, an ageing policeman, comes across a photograph of a masked surgeon in a magazine. His suspicion is aroused. Does the mask hide the face of a former S.S. officer who performed horrible operations without the use of anaesthesia? Could the former S.S. officer still be enjoying the pursuit of his sadistic practices in a peaceful Berne clinic? Barlach decides he must enter the clinic to discover the truth. His companions in horror include a fanatical nurse, a beautiful ex-Communist drug addict, a murderous dwarf, and a mysterious Jew, Gulliver, who because of his past can divide mankind into only two groups: the tortured and torturers.