How do we understand faith and prayer, and what of miracles? August 1925 on a Danish farm. Patriarch Borgen has three sons: Mikkel, a good-hearted agnostic whose wife Inger is pregnant, Johannes, who believes he is Jesus, and Anders, young, slight, in love with the tailors daughter. The fundamentalist sect of the girls father is anathema to Borgens traditional Lutheranism; he opposes the marriage until the tailor forbids it, then Borgens pride demands that it happen. Unexpectedly, Inger, who is the familys sweetness and light, has problems with her pregnancy. The rational doctor arrives, and a long night brings sharp focus to at least four views of faith.