It is loosely based on two Edgar Allan Poe short stories, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845) and "The Premature Burial" (1844), and partly inspired by the works of the Marquis de Sade.

[3] Jean Berlot (Liska) is a deeply troubled man who has been haunted by violent hallucinations of being stuffed into a straitjacket by two orderlies since the death of his mother, who was committed to a mental institution before she passed on.

The Marquis drops dead after choking on a banana the following day, and Jean is ordered at gunpoint to assist the servant Dominik (Nový) in burying the coffin in the family mausoleum.

Jean falls for a beautiful nurse named Charlota (Geislerova), who claims she is being held at the hospital against her will, and reveals that Murlloppe and the Marquis were previous patients who led a revolt and locked the real asylum employees in the basement.

Dr. Coulmiere thanks Jean for releasing them, and explains his philosophy that corporal punishment is key to treating mental illness by balancing the mind and the body, and that Murlloppe's idea of curing it with "freedom" is absurd.