A portrait of a pushy surgeon :an unscrupulous cynical man. Professor Valotti appears first as a benefactor , almost a saint: The needy can be treated for free ;when they enter his office ,lots of people call him a saint on Earth .When he talks to his students in the university, he insists they must treat the poor the same way as the rich. It's just a front ;the man reigns over his peers ,he makes them work for him , he may help them or destroy them ;in his private clinic, the surgeons seem to work on a production line,under their boss' watchful eye,who occasionally intervenes.