Otar Iosseliani recounts the lives of the monks of the Sant'Antimo abbey in Castelnuovo dell'abate, near Montalcino near Siena in Tuscany Father André Forest, Father Etienne Roze, Father Olivier Nelle, Brother Emmanuel Roze, Brother Jean-Charles Leroy. The film begins with this sentence: "If we want to know what value are the goods of the Earth, consider them the bed of death: these honors, these entertainments, these riches we will be removed one day. We must therefore work to sanctify ourselves and enrich ourselves with the only links that follow us in eternity "(St. Alphonsus Liguori). Then another text appears: "Here ends the first part of this film, the sequel will be shot in twenty years in this same place and with the same characters".
        It is a strange film since it is almost a documentary and it focuses much more on the work of the peasants than the life of the monastery