Near the village of Poivre Blanc, an old soldier lives up a hill from the quiet lives below, visited on occasion by a shepherd girl who is teaching him to read and write in exchange for an escape from her life. Everywhere else, and on the hills while shepherding, she is inseparable from Thierry, her neighbour and mentee in all questions of life. In the village jail, the lone prisoner remains a man racked with guilt over a tragedy that changed the shepherdess' family forever. In the chapel, the local priest wrestles with how to tend to his people best.