Eugene, a young man taught to gamble by his father, journeys to the estate of the Colonel to play a game of cards that may decide his fate. On the way, he meets a ghostly, bedraggled figure, who mocks him with laughter, frightening him through the gate that leads to the decrepit estate. The Colonel and his coterie of fringe aristocrats, essentially the criminal element of the aristocracy, are former associates of Eugene's now-deceased father. They cheat an increasingly intoxicated Eugene out of what's left of his inheritance, and then allow Eugene to wager his prized possession, his father's watch. Upon catching Eugene cheating in the final hand, they take the watch and have him forcibly ejected, discharged to meet the beggarly figure still waiting for him at the gate-the beggar who confronts Eugene is a demonic future self who offers Eugene one final wager, for all that he has left.