Sandrene Buxton is on leave in Sinai, Egypt. She’s visiting a friend, Father Demetrios, at St. Catherine’s Monastery on the anniversary of her mother’s death, who died in Bosnia years earlier where she herself was an army nurse.

A more recent trauma for Sandrene was in Afghanistan where another soldier, her fiancé, died in an explosion that also gravely injured her and left her feeling responsible for her role in the event. Sandrene now uses alcohol and painkillers to self-medicate and avoids caring for patients.

At the monastery, she meets two American nuns: Mother Roseline, a brusque biblical researcher, and Sister Emily, a dreamy, naïve-appearing novitiate. Sister Emily, though, has her own past trauma as a rape victim before entering the convent.

The second day after they all arrive, a violent sandstorm severs the monastery from the outside world while an unknown assailant attacks Efraim, the elderly abbot. Sandrene wants nothing to do with Efraim for the nightmares it brings back, but she’s compelled by Demetrios to treat the abbot while he searches for the abbot’s attacker. This is also when Emily shares with Sandrene that Efraim sexually assaulted her during the storm, shattering both her motivation to be a nun and her faith in a loving god.