Having killed a man by accident, Oceano, a young monk, goes to the craggy Skellig Islands to atone.

He soon finds out that the monks there have abandoned their religious ways and fallen into vehement infighting since the day their abbot proclaimed that God didn’t exist.

Oceano will try to bring them back to the faith and to reestablish monastic discipline. But he finds himself tempted by Arden, a nun who does not believe that physical love is a sin. Among other twists and turns, the Vikings attack the island.

Arden will leave the island to follow her dream: founding a monastery where monks and nuns can live together in a spirit of alliance rather than domination: 'love without possession, domination or betrayal.' Oceano becomes a hermit and takes Arden’s place after she dies.

The story is related by Oceano from the Kingdom of the Dead. His tale is studded with imaginary archive documents written by Capitulata, a nun in the monastery.