Follow an iconoclastic, if not eccentric, young psychiatrist as he confronts modern-day obstacles to the treatment of his patients, in the context of a deteriorating marriage.

He is self-absorbed (imagine a physician being self-absorbed) and unable to support his wife's literary ambition.

She goes away, against his wishes, to a small town in Virginia (Little Washington) to create and critique with a group of fellow poets and is raped and murdered.

Guilt-ridden and impulsive, against the wishes of friends and family, he goes to that town to find out what happened. In the process, he becomes a different person. He finds the murderer, and starts a new life.