At a Catholic boys' school in rural England, a domineering disciplinarian priest is challenged by one of his teenage charges when that charge confesses to murder, sending the dogmatic but deeply repressed Goddard spiralling dangerously out of control. The film's dark and twisted exploration of faith, guilt, and deception unfolds as Goddard's search for truth descends into a desperate struggle with his own morals and the true nature of his troubled pupils.