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 ?