Tatsurō Ikeyama lectures in neurology at a university hospital. He was a medical school contemporary of Dr. Ichirō Irabu, though questions lingered about Irabu's actual academic achievements. Ikeyama's career path is potentially aided by his father-in-law, who serves as both Dean of the School of Medicine and head of the university hospital's surgical department. Ikeyama struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder characterized by intrusive urges to disrupt order and commit social transgressions. These include vivid fantasies like overturning a stopped dump truck's load or swinging from a chandelier at a reunion. His most persistent compulsion is an overpowering impulse to publicly remove his father-in-law's wig, causing him significant distress.

Dr. Irabu's unconventional treatment prescribes acting on these impulses: deliberately passing gas in a crowded elevator, switching the television from opera to baseball during family viewing, and finally, publicly removing the wig. The roots of these compulsions lie in Ikeyama's suppressed self; before marriage, he enjoyed pranks and favored baseball over opera, implying his controlled life contributed to his psychological state. After receiving the clinic's vitamin injection, visual representations show Ikeyama with a multi-colored chameleon head, frequently rendering him invisible. His story concludes with him carrying out the prescribed actions, including the wig removal, signifying his confrontation with the compulsions via Irabu's methods.