Father Holy is having a crisis of faith and spirit. Though the Soviets are finally leaving his country to govern itself, years of struggling with communist bureaucrats and corrupt clerics of higher rank have taken their toll. When he learns that the parish he has fought so hard to maintain is to be closed down because his flock does not care enough to fight and does not have enough money to fund it, Holy becomes doubly depressed. As the bitter icing on his unjust desserts, the married woman whom Holy has secretly and chastely loved for years, is dying slowly from cancer. To save the church, Holy teams up with a curmudgeonly sculptor and hatches a devilish plot to dupe the authorities.