When the bridge over a gorge in Peru breaks, five people are plunged to their deaths. Brother Juniper, a witness, wishing to explain the ways of God to his fellow man, examines the lives of these five, believing that this will lead him to find a reason for the fatal accident. The questions he raises concern life and death; chance and God; faith and unbelief. Whatever answers are to be found contain an affirmation, if not of God, then of the powers of love.