A deeply felt and beautifully written novel with a ""leit-motif"" of the struggle between Atheism, Faith, Christianity, and Bolshevism. It is the sad story of an old priest. His young son is killed protecting the church from the Bolsheviks, his older son is a ""Red"", and through his work the father is put in prison. Soon after his release the old man is killed when the church collapses during Mass. A young child, Lucie, brought up without a faith, sees the happenings and gradually comes to a religious awakening.