Don Juan Alcántara, who from a village apothecary became a financier, is ruined. He does not dare to confess it to the family, since the unanimous opinion of those who know him is that he is a squawk. His lack of character is remedied by his doctor, who provides the recipe for everyone to obey: pretend that he suffers a crisis of madness and that if he takes the opposite may lead to homicide.
