A theme in the story is the poison extracted from the ovaries of a fish and its lethal effect upon ingestion, particularly in the sense of one person purposely poisoning another.
A character is shown going through the effects of being poisoned (gasping for breath, screaming, wrecking the surroundings in the process). A glass breaks in his hand, leaving it bloody. It smears on a woman's neck as he grabs her.
A character is about to perform an autopsy on a man. He describes the machine which drains the blood for the body to an assistant and is shown making one small incision in the corpse's neck before he is interrupted.
A character is shown many times with severe gashes on his hands. He puts his hands in a sink full of hydrogen peroxide, causing it to bubble while he screams.
A character attempts to shoot another with a shotgun.
A character is hit in the back of the head with a pipe-like object.
A character has a small blood smear on the side of the forehead after a fall.