Dr. Martin Dysart is trying to help an adolescent who, in a weird obsession, has blinded several horses. Most of the play develops as a dialogue of the psychiatrist with the audience. He tries to understand and lives the boy's struggle as a personal failure. The boy really wants his painful memories exposed, shared, and assuaged; the doctor envies the boy's bizarre fantasies of god-like union with horses, and regrets making him "normal".