This story tells of the reason Ed and Al are questing for the Philospher's Stone.  When they were young, they took after their father in his abilities at alchemy.  Their father left them and their mother was always hopeful that he would return.  When she later died, Ed and Al tried to use alchemy to bring her back.  In the process Ed looses a leg and Al looses his body.  Ed sacrifices his arm in order to bond Al's soul to a suit of armor.  While Ed is healing at the Auto Mail shop, a State Alchemist arrives who has been looking for their father.  Before being kicked out by the shop's owner, he says that they are powerful achemists and he would like to teach them.