In 1935 Paul Leung, a promising engineering student, finds himself attracted to the austere life of a Cistercian monk. He leaves his family and girlfriend Margaret, to join the Monastery of Our lady of Consolation in the Beijing mountains. During unsettled times, large areas of the country are under Japanese occupation leading up to World War Two. Paul and the other monks survive, only for the monastery to be destroyed by the Communists in the vicious civil war which follows. A small group of monks escape to Hong Kong where they re-found their monastery. Father Paul decides to make the perilous journey across China to join them, and on the way endures hard labour, privation and brutality. En route to Hong Kong Father Paul and Margaret meet again, and after everything he has been through, he faces one last agonising choice. Is his love stronger for God, or for a woman?