The Proud and the Beautiful

The first to die in an epidemic of meningitis in Vera Cruz is a French tourist His wife Nellie detached and indifferent feels little grief and realizes that her coldness is her own doom Over the next two days she is attracted to George a local drunk who does odd jobs for brothels and dances grotesquely for tourists in exchange for drinks George has his own dark secret a tragedy he caused that leaves him with a death wish In assisting the local doctor to cope with the epidemic these two emotional cripples enable each other to rediscover reasons to live and to love