Bandits force a cotton farmer to treat a young man who has been shot. Though the farmer has only basic medical experience he saves the boy's life. The bandits declare the farmer their doctor and he even teaches them to read and write.
Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater.
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father.
Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s.