The Keys of the Kingdom

In 1938, Father Francis Chisholm is an elderly priest whose sermons don't particularly conform to his Bishop's expectation and is asked to retire. The Monsignor who has delivered the message comes across Father Francis' journals which tell his life story. He is orphaned when his parents are swept down down river during a violent storm and taken in by his Aunt Polly. After the death of his childhood sweetheart, he enters the priesthood and is sent by his mentor, Bishop Hamish MacNabb, as a missionary to China. He arrives to find that his church has burnt to the ground and that he has few adherents other than rice Christians, a practice he puts to an immediate end. Establishing himself is a challenge but he is called to care for the son of the local Mandarin. As a thank you, the Mandarin gives him a piece of land and pays all of the expenses to build a new compound with not only a church but a schoolhouse and a dispensary. The arrival of three nuns should have lightened his load but his inability to befriend the haughty Mother Superior weighs greatly on his conscience. They survive a war between Imperial and Nationalist troops but a close friend is killed. He returns to Scotland, an old man whose view of the world, shaped by his life's experience impresses the visiting Monsignor who has spent the night reading his journals.