This quiet, imaginative novel is a study of faith in an increasingly hostile world. Through intimate journal entries, the author reveals the private life and struggles of a young, withdrawn, devout and sickly priest in northern France. Though his beliefs are sincere and profound, his enthusiasm quickly collides with the indifference and cowardice of his parishioners. Conversations with a confused young girl, an atheist doctor, a grieving countess, her spiteful teenage daughter, and a soldier illustrate the priest's own despair, doubts, joys, torments and ultimate appeal to grace.