This comedic social satire mercilessly lampoons Italy's ineffectual health-care system that allows for corruption and mass hypochondria. An ambitious Dr. Tersilli (Alberto Sordi) bets his fellow doctors that he can amass more patients and benefits than they can. Learning the ins-and-outs of the system, his office is soon jammed with patients seeking treatment for a variety of real or imagined maladies. The beginning of the film opens with the doctor's collapse due to exhaustion in his fervent goal to see over 2,000 patients. The remainder of the film flashes back to how the vibrant young physician is turned into a frail patient who must stay at home and dispense advise over the telephone.