Pierre Salas

Denise, a young employee of the mine, is courted by the engineer Risay while she is engaged to Daniel, a simple underground worker. A betrayal has occurred that compromises the mine. An accident occurs and about fifteen workers, including Denise's fiancé, are buried under rubble in a collapsing shaft.

The inhabitants of the windswept island of Sein, in the 19th-century Brittany, follow their own religion without need for clergy, but as strangers arrive, their faith and beliefs face a deep crisis.