The film opens with a sequence of shots showing empty rooms within a house - particular objects are given prominence; the first of these rooms being the bathroom, living room and finally bedroom, where the camera zooms to an alarm-clock seconds before it goes off.
The protagonist proceeds to wake up and move through the house - each of his movements and actions clearly shown in close-ups on his hands (which both begin and end the film).
Once the alarm-clock stops a soundtrack begins to fade in and proceeds to accompany a montage of actions made by the protagonist i.e. getting dressed, making a meal - all of which will involve a number of rituals for example over obssessivley turning light switches on and off multiple times.
At around the half way stage the protagonist will exit the house and the screen will fade to black with the soundtrack also proceeding to fade into silence.
The film then continues with the re-entering of the protagonist into the setting where he is suddenly confronted with the seemingly painless task of taking out the rubbish but this instead leads to a shocking climax where once performing the task the protagonist proceeds to wash his hand with obsessive amounts of soap and hot water which leads to his hands getting burnt to the point of needing bandage treatment.
the signifigance and drama in this scene is highlighted equally by a series of dramatic shots - some of which may be shown in black and white or different frame rate etc.
The final sequence begins as the film ends with a sequence of shots showing empty rooms within the house, the first of these rooms being the bathroom, living room and finally bedroom, where the camera zooms to an alarm-clock seconds before it goes off.
The protagonist then also proceeds go through the many strange habits of his condition with the re-entering of the original soundtrack at the point that it last cut off; though this gives the impression that nothing has changed, the real resolution comes from when the protagonist leaves the house and instead decides to leave the light switch on as he leaves the house.
The camera then fades into darkness with the continuation of the soundtrack but at a louder volume.
