In the midst of a crisis of faith, the abbot Pierre Froment journeys to the south of France on a quest for answers. Froment's internal struggle is representative of the conflict between science and religion that took place throughout Europe and defined the dawn of modernity in the late-19th century. Froment sets out on a pilgrimage towards Lourdes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and as the reader accompanies him, the European masses acquire an almost abstract quality, a mind and soul of their own beyond man himself, towards mysticism, faith, suffering, and hope. In a time of positivism and reason, Émile Zola makes room for illusion, lies, and miracles.