This Flemish heimat-movie after a novel by Felix Timmermans, the title of which translates as "farmers psalm", is about the at first sight idyllic, but actually tragical life of Wortel, a god-fearing peasant in a pre-war Belgian village, who has a hard time accepting the curate's assurance it's all part of God's grand plan when his loved ones keep coming to terrible harm, and searching solace in the hand-carving of a wooden statue of Christ.