The main character of the story is Padre Innocenzo, a 39 year-old Cistercian monk who observes an austere lifestyle and is a ceramist of the abbey where he lives. Besides having a good voice and working with the confreres, he  is sometimes requested by other churches to sing sacred music in Latin. The transfer of the parish priest of the village involves new commitments for the monk (music celebrations, blessing of houses, confessions of the faithful, church maintenance), which divert him from his rarefied loneliness, to his great disappointment.

The monk comes face to face with the complexity of community life, which in the past he had carefully avoided (relatives included), but which he can no longer circumvent. He will become more and more aware of his inadequacy until the willingness of a relative (failed artisan) to commit suicide. This upsets him to the point of definitively crumbling all his certainties. This will lead him to a radical redefinition of his own identity as man and a man of faith. This evolution occurs while remaining firmly within his choice of a life dedicated to faith.