While on vacation, Black Jack comes across a young man called Leslie Harris on a train. Bullet wounds mysteriously appear on his body, bleed, but then disappear. Leslie has recurring dreams of seeing a woman with a child singing about the Owl of San Merida where he finds himself in a battle zone being shot. Black Jack examines him and finds barely visible signs of many earlier operations. They travel to the Republic of El Garnia, a country with over 25 years of civil war which ended 4 years earlier, and visit the village of San Merida. Leslie finds it familiar, and they meet Ernesto, the only survivor who tells the story of how he, an uncertified doctor, saved a baby by using the blood and body components of the dead woman Sanda, including her bullet-riddled skin. Suddenly the government troops arrive and arrest, then summarily shoot Ernesto for his part in the resistance. Jack is unable to save his life, leaving Leslie the only living survivor of San Merida.