It is the end of World War I and the young Italian soldiers are making their way back to San Giovanni Rotondo, a land of poverty, historic violence, and the iron-clad rule of the church and its wealthy landowners. Families are desperate, the men are broken, but victorious. Padre Pio (Shia Labeouf) also arrives, to a remote Capuchin monastery, to begin his ministry evoking an aura of compelling charisma, saintliness, and storied visions of Jesus, Mary, and the Devil himself. The eve of the first free election in Italy sets the stage for a historic, and metaphoric massacre, an apocalyptic event, one that changes the course of the world.