The young magician Faust seeks to perform a feat of real magic, something more than mere illusion. In his search he has become solitary, brooding, and eccentric. Mephistopheles, in the guise of Bolus a psychologist.

The young magician Faust seeks to perform a feat of real magic, something more than mere illusion. In his search he has become solitary, brooding, and eccentric. Mephistopheles, in the guise of Bolus a psychologist, asks permission from Faust's father, director of a religious mission for vagrants, to assume the role of Faust's mentor. He thereupon taunts Faust into an angry wager: Faust bets that he can perform an act of real magic for Bolus, one that Bolus cannot figure out, and agrees that the stakes are to be determined by the winner, after winning.—Ulf Kjell Gür