Filmed in the style of direct cinema over five days in the detoxification unit of a Sydney hospital for alcoholics and hard drug addicts which appears to be run along lines suggested by Alcoholics Anonymous. Several patients are followed and, in two cases, during their first day outside. The director, himself an alcoholic, reflects on his relationship to the film. At times he enters into dialogue with the subjects who also on occasions acknowledge the presence of the camera. One of a series of seven documentary films about contemporary Australian society. Each program offers a perspective on a different aspect of Australian life.