Miss Ella, an African-American Creole woman in her late 70s, gets calls daily from an underground network of the troubled looking for her prayers and counseling on grief, romantic entanglements, legal problems, elderly care, and even cooking. One visitor may be looking for a cure for arthritis, the next for witchcraft or love charms.

Lawrence, a Houma Indian, learned the healing arts from his tribal elders because as a child he was too overweight to go out and play. Today he totes a briefcase filled with wild herbs, rosaries, store-bought liniments, and the twine used to fashion the mystical "string of nine knots." But how does an itinerant, illiterate healer function in the 1990s? During the course of filming, Lawrence must deal with the notoriety - and heavy case load- that arises after his appearance on local television, then must visit a conventional doctor when major illness threatens him.

Shannon, a twenty-something Cajun woman, learned the secret healing rites from an aging treater; today she harvests wild bark to treat toothache and cactus to cure diabetes. But how does Shannon reconcile her otherwise modern lifestyle with a remedy that involves circling herpes sores with chicken blood?