In alternating narratives, Brother Quintillian Josephus and chemist Dick Carson are introduced as men who have both recently developed particular sufferings. Brother Quintillian has lost a sense of purpose in his faith; he frequently loses track of his sentences when teaching papal history and emerges from Mass feeling blasphemous in his disregard for its blessed sacraments. Dick loved his wife, she brought pleasure into their lives in the form of outings and a beautifully styled house, and while Dick liked these things too, they become meaningless to him upon her death. He resolves to move on with the pragmatism of a scientist, but he is distressed by a suite of physical ailments that seem to transcend his unhappiness.  Upon hearing of Sylvia Carson’s death, Brother Quintillian decides to visit Dick Carson, a mutual friend. Dick receives him coldly but is astounded by the sacred music he plays; meanwhile, the Brother is astounded and distracted from his own sorrow in admiration of Dick’s modernist home. With each man’s spirits buoyed, they listen to Gregorian chanting together, then play a game of chess. Both the music and Dick’s interest in Brother Quintillian’s fasting regimen (Dick himself has been experimenting with diet as a solution to his ailments) take the edge off his secular coolness toward the Brother. They discuss superstition in the church and in science, leveling one another. Dick leaves the encounter ruminating on the purity of the chanting, Brother Quintillian on the purity of Einstein’s unified field theory. Both men are comforted, revived.