Summary:

This is the fifth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. The plot centres on the neurotic young priest Serge Mouret, as he takes his orders and becomes the parish priest for the uninterested village of Artauds. Eventually he has a complete nervous breakdown and his distant relative, Pascal Rougon, places him in the care of the inhabitants of a nearby derelict stately home, Le Paradou.