Dr. Benassis is a compassionate and conscientious physician who ministers to the psychological and spiritual as well as physical needs of the villagers among whom he has chosen to practice medicine. He has been instrumental in transforming the once-impoverished community into a progressive and healthy town, and he is now also its elected mayor. To Genestas, a soldier at a nearby military garrison, Dr. Benassis relates stories of the transformation he has wrought and eventually imparts the secrets of his buried past. Genestas asks the doctor to care for his sickly 16-year-old adopted son. Later, in gratitude for his son’s recovery, Genestas swears that he will settle in the village and carry on the doctor’s good and noble work.