Between Miracles

In a private hospital, Benedict Parisi is urgently summoned to operate on a man in critical condition after a suicide attempt. In the waiting room, Joan Micheli awaits with her unborn child, giving consent to the risky operation. Immaculate, Joan's mother, lurks like a vulture, hoping Benedict dies so she can push her daughter toward a more advantageous marriage. The tense moment frames the film's present-day perspective as Benedict faces the operating table.

Benedict is an orphan growing up in a village in the Latin Valley under the care of a religiously scrupulous maiden aunt. She indoctrinates him with a strict morality while indulging in covert sexual acts that shape his guilt and fear of sin. On the eve of his first communion, he receives an effigy of Saint Eusebius and is thrust into a world where faith and temptation collide.

On the day of his first communion, the aunt's lover Giovanni hides in her room and Benedict is told not to confess the truth to avoid offending the celestial friends. He fixes a picture of Saint Eusebius when the nun enters and discovers him; the moment blurs into fear and secrecy. During the procession, the host seems to stick in his throat and he flees, plummeting into a ravine, where he survives and is celebrated as a miracle.

The crowd proclaims Benedict a miracle and carries him in a procession in a saint-like fashion. The aunt exploits the coincidence to rid herself of the burden and sends Benedict to the Franciscan monastery, where he grows into adulthood.

Among the friars, Benedict's simple nature earns admiration, but his vocation remains uncertain. A traveling salesman, Uncle Checco, visits and a glimpse of a nude photo in his car stirs a longing for a wider world beyond the cloister. The vision unsettles him, mixing fear of leaving with calls to travel.

While working in the fields one day, a snake bites a schoolteacher who pleads for help. Benedict saves her by sucking venom from her leg, then proclaims this act as the sign they were waiting for him to leave religious life. He joins Uncle Checco, traveling to sell cloth and undergarments across the region.

As a clothing and undergarment vendor, Benedict travels from village to village and faces advances from women attracted by the new fashions. His scruples keep him from acting, and he continues to resist personal temptations while maintaining his focus on work. The tension between desire and piety remains a constant undercurrent.

Benedict meets Oreste Micheli, a pharmacist who doubts faith and sympathizes with his inner conflict. Oreste tries to pull him away from religious scruples and toward secular life, which also leads to a flirtation with a married prostitute that Benedict does not consummate.

Benedict falls in love with Joan Micheli, the pharmacist's daughter, and she gives him a sense of belonging he has long sought. Her presence helps him feel at peace and provides a counterpoint to his turbulent past and uncertain future.

The couple chooses to live together as husband and wife for six years, during which Joan becomes pregnant. Benedict grapples with the idea of marriage while Immaculate, Joan's mother, maintains tight control over the relationship and its social implications.

While Benedict is away, Oreste Micheli suffers a heart attack and Immaculate seizes the moment to perform the last rites for her dying friend. Benedict returns in time to witness the moment and is shocked by what he interprets as a conversion.

Overwhelmed by the turn of events, Benedict goes to the cliff to attempt suicide. He is rescued and taken to a hospital, where the surgeon proclaims that the operation was a miracle, sealing the strange arc of his life.