Confrontation ensues when a young doctor discovers that his father, also a doctor, prescribes codeine to the old French Quarter of New Orleans instead of legitimately treating them. As the father grows ill, the son slowly adopts the superstitious and traditional medical methods of the Quarter and begins falling into his father’s ways.

While attempting to convince an older man that his son has not gone to the devil, a professor engages in discussion about the shape of the earth.