He lives with his wife Virginia (Ginny) and has a seemingly normal life until one day when he sees a vagrant man in the emergency room who says something very strange to him then begs Alan to take his hand. Alan feels some kind of charge going from hand to hand; and then afterward, he finds that at certain times, he is able to completely heal people. The servant of a friend of his tells him that he has what is called the Dat-Tay-Vao, "the touch," which in fact will allow him the gift of healing, but which takes a terrible payment in return.