One man’s battle against the social and psychological ravages of alcoholism. As a child, Frank is confronted with two pathways in life, relating back to his ambivalent feelings for his father. Faced with this swaggering man, a womaniser and a drinker, Frank is torn between rejection and unconscious imitation. From then on, he continually vacillates between a desire for self-control and stability, and giving in to hatred and mistrust, a legacy of his painful experience of betrayal. His first precocious glass of alcohol drags him in this dangerous direction, which continues throughout his adulthood.