Amidst a short spat between a married couple, the husband, a doctor, is summoned to the bedside of a dying man. So begins a Series of involvements throughout the night in increasingly dangerous and deviant sexual adventures for Fridolin, who taken by a friend to a "secret" party, is forced to make choices that seem beyond his control. The dream-like events are made more frighteningly real by Schnitzler’s powerfully detailed descriptions, as little by little Fridolin gives in