Knock, a retired crook-turned-qualified doctor, arrives in the small village of Saint-Maurice to implement a method' that he believes will make him rich: he will persuade the villagers that healthy people are simply people who don't realize they are ill. To do this, he needs to find an illness -- either real or imaginary -- that afflicts each person. But his plans are rattled by two things he had not foreseen: his own romantic feelings and the appearance of a dubious character from his past.