Don Antonio, the old parish priest of the small Umbrian town of Acquasparta, is found murdered. The young priest Carlo Baldi, who has just recovered from a serious mental breakdown, is sent to replace him. He finds out that Don Antonio was investigating the mysterious death of a child and soon becomes involved in his predecessor's quest. Baldi gets help from Luca Anselmi, a young television journalist who's making a documentary in Acquasparta about an old, clairvoyant woman. They discover a terrible and forgotten news item about an event that occurred in the town in the seventies. Baldi and Anselmi start to construct a connection between the dead child and the visions of the now comatose clairvoyant.