Pay attention to the following definition
(define (a . b) (apply + b))
(a 1)
(a 1 2)
(a 1 2 3)
'.' gives you ability to pass any number of arguments to a function. You can still have required arguments
(define (f x . xs) (apply x xs)) ;; x is required
(f + 1 2 3) ;; x is +, xs is (1 2 3)