In the mid-19th century in a small town in Germany lives a soldier named Franz Woyzeck. He is a kind, naïve fellow, a poor man with deep sentiments, bound to the servant Marie, who bore him a son. To feed his family, he tries to add to his very modest soldier’s pay by working as a barber for his captain and for several others, and by offering himself as a subject in a doctor’s experiments. The doctor obliges him to eat only peas in order to demonstrate the human being’s animal nature. Derided by his mates, Woyzeck confides only in his friend Andres, who nonetheless cannot offer him valid support. When he learns that Marie is cheating on him with the drum major, he becomes deeply depressed. Having given his few belongings to Andres, he buys an old knife from a second- hand dealer, takes Marie to the banks of a pond and kills her.