First the film looks back to Mackenzie's seminal work 'The Study of the Pulse: arterial, venous and hepatic, and the movements of the heart' and Paul Wood (narrator) describes its importance. Various means of measuring the jugular venous pulse are shown - from the older polygraph to more modern electrocardiograms. A diagram shows the traces a jugular pulse should make and explains how it can be read. A GP is shown measuring a jugular venous pulse from the bedside of a healthy subject, a young woman. The pulse itself is shown beating under the skin of the woman's neck while Paul Wood in voiceover explains what we are seeing and takes measurements.