Father Santa Cruz (Ramon Barea) was a Basque priest living in Spain in the 1860s, who participated in the complex ethnic and political battles of the Second Carlist War as a guerilla among the Basques. He was illiterate, but extremely dedicated to the cause, and had no qualms about joining in the killing, if killing was to be done. In a subplot, a young seminarian who wants to marry and be a layman, with dreams of emigration to America, gets roped into helping the warrior-priest. Despite many perils, he survives to live in exile in France, and is reunited there with a woman he has become interested in. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi