Chabela and husband Eufemio are happy enough, until the day their son Nicholas falls ill, and they do not have the wherewithal to buy the medicine. Chabela goes to old Tomás for help, but he will only on condition that she sleep with him. She refuses. The father steals a pearl from a statue in the church, but loses it and is arrested. The population obliges Tomás to pay for the boy's treatment, and his father is released for lack of evidence. Nicolás finds the pearl and returns it to the church. The priest invents a miracle.