 Mark O Brien is a journalist (for Pacific News Service) and poet who lives in Berkeley, California. He is in his 40 s, and for most of every day, he is encased in an iron lung, the result of polio as a child and a relapse 20 years later. O Brien comments on his life, his parents  courage and devotion, his studies at Cal, his writing, the sweetness of friendship, and his fears. Occasionally he recites one of his poems. The film includes footage from days when O Brien motored around the sidewalks of Berkeley, flat on his back. While O Brien s health declines, his meditations on the spiritual and on the nature of the soul embody great power.