In the midst of a mighty storm, and abandoned to an isolated inn in Upper Provence, a family is brutally massacred. Miraculously, a three-week old child evades the violence and is given up to the custody of the Sisters of Charity. 20 years later, the young orphan, possessive of so traumatized a history, sets off in search of answers.

The enigmatic Séraphin Monge, having avenged the grisly massacre of his family, has disappeared. His brief sojourn in the village of his birth has touched the lives of its inhabitants, and he is mourned by the women who claim to have been in love with him. But is Séraphin dead or alive? Did he in fact perish in an avalanche? If so, how to explain the ghostly sightings of him and the miraculous events for which he is seemingly responsible?