Doctor Munro Spence arrives on a small island and is taken to see the local doctor, Laughton. Laughton is sick and must return to the mainland and so Munro is there to replace him. Laughton is helped onto a boat by the nurse, Rosie, and Laughton asks Munro to take care of the locals. Munro returns to the hospital and meets with an old man John Petrie who had come to die. Petrie doesn’t say much to Munro and so he moves on to a couple who have just lost their baby. He talks to the husband, Thomas Tulloch, who asks if Munro knew the sex of the baby. Munro doesn’t and then he talks briefly with Thomas’s wife, Daisy, who seems depressed after the death of her child. Munro begins to review the files about the locals and sees that mostly everyone has been in good health, but does see that Doctor Laughton had been called into the birth thirty six hours into the process and that he had to remove the baby using forceps. Munro asks where the corpse of the infant is and an assistant tells him it's in a bunker which they use for storage. He goes to the bunker, finds that the baby was a girl, and that beside some forceps marks on the head, the infant’s body is relatively intact. That night he goes to check in on Petrie, who doesn’t speak to him and looks longingly at his dog out the window. The next day Munro attends to a patient and then visits the Tulloch’s who live off a rough dirt road. Daisy still seems deep in her depression and so Munro talks to Thomas. Munro tells Thomas that the baby was a girl, but not to tell Daisy. Munro also sees that Thomas is keeping Petrie’s sheep and dog for Petrie while he is in the hospital. After leaving, Munro decides he is going to take the dog, Biddy, so as to comfort Petrie. He sneaks the dog into the ward without anyone saying anything.   Munro becomes acclimated to the town, gaining Petrie’s favor and helping other patients around the town. He prescribes Daisy a tonic on Thomas’s request. One day, the Constable tells Munro that there is a rumor that the Tulloch baby had been skinned. Munro assures him that he saw the body and that it still had its skin. Later he is called to the Flett’s house by one of the Flett children because their mother had an accident. Munro drives with Rosie and the child to the Flett’s house and sees Thomas Tulloch walking away from it as they draw nearer. Munro checks on Mrs. Flett and finds that she has a bruised spleen and that she should go to the hospital. She says it was just a fall, but Munro suspects that it has something to do with her husband. He questions Mr. Flett who reveals that he sold his newborn baby to Thomas Tulloch for Petrie’s sheep because the baby wasn’t his. Munro is somewhat disturbed at this transaction, but realizes that with all parties consenting, including Mrs. Flett, that there is nothing he can do about it. Munro drives back to the hospital and calls an ambulance for Mrs. Flett. He tells Petrie what has been going on about his sheep being traded for a baby and Petrie tells him that a ewe with a dead lamb can be given a new baby, but only if her old lamb’s skin is placed on the new baby. Munro, realizing that this may be what Thomas is doing, races to the Tulloch’s house. He arrives just too late as he watches Thomas walk inside with the baby and hears Daisy scream.