A poor father is so desperate to find a godfather for his son that he runs out to the highway to ask the first man he comes across. Finally, the father meets Death, and accepts him because he makes all men equal. Death appears at the christening to stand as godfather, and he watches over the boy as he grows up. When he is ready to make his way in the world, Death gives the youth a gift that makes him the best doctor in the world. Death sternly warns the youth that his gift is not to be abused, but eventually, the young doctor falls in love with a sick princess and he abuses Death's gift in order to marry her and inherit her father's kingdom.
Death takes the young doctor away to a cave full of candles that represent human lives.
He shows the young doctor his candle, which is sputtering, on the verge of going out. The youth pleads for Death to light him a new candle, appealing to the fact that he is his godson, after all, but Death lets the flame sputter out and the youth dies. Godfather Death gets his revenge for the youth's transgression. For added resonance, readers never learn if, in the end, the young doctor's soul was consigned to heaven or hell. These figures may be read as symbols for the father, whose authority and power, from a child's perspective, often seems colossal.