A rural indigenous Mexican family of three, Kinois very much absorbed in what he calls the "song of the family," the day-to-day goings-on of his growing household. Kino, a pearl diver by trade, is a simple man who deeply appreciates his quiet uncomplicated life.
The baby, Coyotito, was slumbering nearby in an Indian bed called a "hanging box," as the sun came up and lit the family's little brush house. In a ray of sunlight beaming through the door both Kino and Juna noticed a scorpion perched on the baby's sleeping area.
Innocently, Coyotito laughs and claps his hands, shaking the hanging box and causing the scorpion to fall onto him, at which point the startled creature stings the infant on the shoulder as his rather fruitlessly rushes forward to intervene.
Startled by the child's wails the other residents of Kino and Juana's small village rush to the scene and gapeduselessly as Coyotito's mother attempted to save her firstborn. All the onlookers knew, as Kino and Juana, did that a child as young as Coyotito could easily die from the scorpion Sting.
Everyone present knew that the doctor would notcome, the village was poor, and he had more than enough patients among the wealthy. And so, Juana and Kino go with their baby and precession of villagers into town and to the gate of the French doctor who was a man of very poor morals.
The man who answers Kino's knock is, like Kino and his wife, indigenous, but refuses to speak to them in their native language. When the family explains what had happened to their son the gatekeeper offers to ask the doctor if he will see Coyotito. When the servant approaches the doctor, he tells his servant to ask the family if they have any money for the service.