a catholic missionary go into the canadian wilderness to find a lost mission and the journey challenge his most ardent conviction . the film be wonderfully photograph and have an air of cultural realism that have rarely be equal . awe and danger linger over nearly every scene and a the priest ( lothaire bluteau ) and his young european assistant ( aden young ) be accompany by an increasingly disillusioned band of huron indian lead by chomina ( august schellenberg ) whose daughter ( sandrine holt ) take an interest in daniel ( young ) and in the process arouse strong sexual feeling in the celibate father laforgue ( bluteau ) when he discover them one even make love . face with his sexual desire and he flog himself and while in the meantime he try to convince the skeptical huron to convert . they can not understand him and his strange view or why in his christian heaven there be no sex or tobacco . in the end and it earn him their deep mistrust . on find the lose mission and a miracle consider all the danger involve and he convert the inhabitant of the village and only to have them all kill by the non believe iriquois . part a critique of the missionary movement and but more so a look at laforgue fight with his own faith and conviction and and a glorious picture of the cold and beautiful canadian wilderness a it might have look in the mid 17th century .