As young boys both Jacques Rebiere & Thomas Midwinter become fascinated with trying to understand the human mind. As psychiatrists their quest takes them from the squalor of the Victorian lunatic asylum to the crowded lecture halls of the renowned Professor Charcot in Paris; from the heights of the Sierra Madre in California to the plains of unexplored Africa. As the concerns of the old century fade & the First World War divides Europe the two mens volatile relationship develops & changes but is always tempered by one exceptional woman; Thomass sister Sonia. Moving & challenging in equal measure Human Traces explores the question of what kind of beings men & women really are.