Writer Philip Marlow is in hospital being treated for a severe skin affliction, something he has suffered from for 25 years but is now worse than it has ever been. He finds himself in a general ward with a group of other men being treated for a variety of ailments. Marlow's psoriasis covers him from head to toe and even the slightest movement proves extremely painful.The doctors have tried numerous treatments and medication, but to no avail. His only relief, ever so slight, is to gave his body greased from head to toe even though he is embarrassed at his reaction when the pretty Nurse Mills tends to him. Unable to use his hands, he nonetheless keeps working on a novel by imagining the events. In wartime London, Mark Binney goes to a sleazy nightclub where he leaves with two of the girls working there. One of them is later fished out of the Thames, nude.
—garykmcd