A short comic novel set in 1956 in Fetherhoughton, a bleak northern English village with a struggling church. The priest, Father Angwin, has lost his faith, and the parish is stuck in habit and quiet unrest. Into this world comes a mysterious curate, Fludd, who unsettles everyone he meets, including a young nun, Sister Philomena, who is troubled by doubts of her own. Mantel blends religion, folklore and dry humour to ask what belief means and what might change a stagnant community. It is a brief, odd and memorable early novel.