The old Dr. Heidegger once invited friends to meet him in his study. He invited three : Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, and one old lady named Widow Wycherly. The four guests were all very melancholy people who had been unfortunate in life. Mr. Medbourne was a rich who lost everything because of his greed. Colonel Killigrew wasted his best years, health, and money running after pleasures. Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined , and Widow Wycherly, once a great beauty, lived alone for many years due to the many negative rumors that had spread throughout town about her. Ironically, the three men were all in love with the Widow Wycherly earlier in life, and they were all at the point of cutting each other's for her sake.
Dr. Heidegger's study was a very dim curious place with many old bookcases against the walls covered with and dust, and a huge mirror in a dirty old frame on the wall between two of the . In one corner there was a closet with a skeleton in it, and on the opposite side of the room there was a painting of a young lady dressed in and satin. More than fifty years earlier Dr. Heidegger was going to marry this young lady but she died on the night before their after taking some pills for an illness. There was also a huge black book with silver that was well known to be a book of magic.
On the summer afternoon of the story, Dr. Heidegger and his four guests sat at a table in the center of the room that had a cut-glass vase, and four small glasses on it. The doctor asked his old friends if they would participate in his experiment, and before they replied he pulled a dead brown out from the black book of magic. Dr. Heidegger explained to his friends that the rose was given to him by Sylvia Ward, the lady in the painting, fifty-five earlier. He then asked, "Now, would you think it possible that this rose could ever bloom again?"
He then threw the rose into the filled with water, and magically the rose came alive again. When questioned on how this was possible, Heidegger mentioned the explorer Ponce de Leon and his famous search for the Fountain of Youth. He explained how Ponce looked in the wrong place, and that it was actually located in southern near Lake Macaco. He also said that a friend sent him some of this water, and in fact it was that very water in the vase. Dr. Heidegger then poured some of the water into each of the four and offered it to his friends. But before they drank, he asked them to think about what a sin it would be to waste a second chance on life and to become models of goodness and wisdom for all the young people. With shaking hands the four old human beings drank, while Dr. Heidegger looked on with eager curiosity.
Almost immediately there was improvement in the old people. They asked for more , and Dr. Heidegger filled their glasses. Not only did their appearance change, but they began to behave as they did in their younger days. Glass after glass they drank the water, and with every sip they became younger, filled with more and joy. They found most happiness making jokes about the sickness and sadness that had so lately been theirs, and making fun of how old Dr. still was. Before long the three new young men were all over the now beautiful young Widow Wycherly, as they did years prior. As they struggled back and forth, the table was overturned and the vase was shattered. The precious water of the Fountain of flowed across the floor touching the wings of a dying butterfly reviving it. They all stopped instantly, and looked at the rose slowly dying in the hand of Dr. Heidegger until it was as old and brown as it was at the beginning of this tale.
Eventually all four quests grew old again because the Water of Youth only had a effect. Dr. Heidegger learned from his experiment involving his four old friends that he would not want any Water of Youth, but his dear friends did not learn such a lesson. They decided right away to journey to Florida in search of the magical waters of the of Youth so they could have a drink morning, noon, and night.