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.