This musical play is based on the first act of Goethe's Faust. The angel Mephistopheles is condemned to fall from heaven after committing a sin. He is told that he can only return to heaven if he can bring a human being on the path of salvation. Mephistopheles refuses, believing that man is inherently evil. Vowing to drag a human down to hell along with him, he descends onto Earth and sets his sights on a man named Faust, an aged professor with no will to live.