Father Vivyan comes from an aristocratic British family, his brother being the Earl of Longmore. As a young man he joined the army and fought in Zinariya, but his conversion was complete, he became a monk and went back to Africa to live and work there for almost 40 years. Now in his late sixties, he is assigned to take over the parish church in Crickleden, and he immediately introduces important changes. He turns the vicarage into an open house—literally, by removing the lock on the front door—and caters for the homeless as well as asylum seekers. As a radical follower of Jesus Christ, he advocates absolute poverty and does not have any personal belongings himself except a few books, among them his favourites, Bonhoeffer's "Ethik" and works by Simone Weil. Like Bonhoeffer, Vivyan has been pondering the question of whether it is ethically justifiable, and a fulfilment of God's plan, to use violence against those in power who are evil—whether they are a British newspaper tycoon or an African dictator butchering his own people. As it happens, some of the shadier figures looming in and around his Crickleden headquarters have built a secret arsenal and are training to use the weapons.