A story of mothers and daughters, family, faith and fate.
"I want to be a nun."
Elspeth, recently retired from Cape Breton University's Celtic Culture
Department, is not sure how to deal with her teenage daughter Cecelia's
outdated and strangely troubling post-secondary plans. Maybe the
spiritual inclination Cecelia has would have been welcomed in the past,
but with all the scandals the Catholic Church has been going through
during recent decades, all Elspeth can do is wonder if it is too early
in the day for a glass of wine before responding.
Cecelia has always been a quiet, sometimes even cold child, and Elspeth
worries once again if she and Andrew had been too old to raise a
menopausal baby. Now as Cecelia approaches high school graduation, and
all the decisions that come with that transition, the gap between them
seems to be more than merely an age thing.
As she tries to understand her strange desire to become a nun, Cecelia
befriends an aging Sister at the Notre Dame congregation at the convent
in Mabou. Madonna, a fitting name for a woman who lived a life devoted
to God, is in a time of transition as well, struggling with ailments of
an aging mind and body. Because of Cecelia's interest, she tries to
piece together the reasons she became a bride of Christ.
Faith, family, and fate bring these three women together. Cecelia is
looking for hope in an increasingly fragile world but Madonna's past, if
she can face it, may challenge all of them.
