Charles Wenmouth is a young blacksmith and Methodist lay preacher in the furthest, widest reaches of south-west England. It is 1870 and preachers such as Wenmouth devote their Sundays to walking great distances across country to preach morning and evening to ever dwindling congregations. Wenmouth himself burns with faith, but it is a faith that is balanced by the pleasures he takes in nature and the world around him. His only distraction is a local blind girl, Harriet French, whom he is drawn to by the faith she maintains despite her debilitating condition. Over the course of one long Sabbath, after preaching morning through evening, Wenmouth returns to his village and devastating news. Will he finally begin to face the doubt that has threatened to consume him for many years past?