In 1955, a small band of Trappist monks is sent from their mother house in Kentucky to Missouri to establish a new monastery. They arrive at a time in history when Jim Crow still flourished in the American South and where, in the Bible Belt, Roman Catholicism was viewed with deep distrust. The decade also predated the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In the fictional abbey of Our Lady of Saint Bernard, the monks still chant in Latin. The community consists of four groups: the choir monk priests, choir monk novices, scholastics on the path to priesthood, and lay brothers. The daily routine of the choir monks involves primarily chanting and study, with a few hours of physical labor, while the lay brothers tend to most of the farm chores.