In this 1976 character study by Czech director Frantisek Vlacil, a stout middle-aged physician whose marriage has come apart establishes a practice in a small town. Gradually he's drawn into the lives of his patientsâ??a childless couple, a pregnant girl with a stern mother, the son of a duck farmerâ??and each relationship reveals a bit more about him and the idyllic but insular community.