on most cars, power, whether 6v or 12v, runs from one of the battery terminals to the positive post on the coil, through the coil and out the negative terminal, and from there to the small connector on the distributor. then, through the points to ground via the distributor's housing. a secondary path to ground, usually internal or in close proximity to the distributor, is provided by a parallel circuit that involves the condenser. the points circuit and the condenser circuits run in parallel and together serve to insure long term use of the points. how that is accomplished is murky and finding a straightforward answer to it has eluded me for a few years now.
key word being "straightforward".