Ten years pass as the two become friends and work hard to guide their flourishing parish. Chisholm easily forgives her, and with help from Maria Veronica's wealthy family, their church is rebuilt. The contrast between the pompous Angus and the humble Chisholm finally makes Maria Veronica understand how truly good he is, and after Angus departs, she begs Chisholm's forgiveness for her harshness. Soon after, Angus, now a monsignor, visits and expresses displeasure at the burned-out church and Chisholm's plain lifestyle.
At great risk to himself, Chisholm blows up the cannon of the imperial forces, and the war ends. On the way, Willie is mortally wounded, and Maria Veronica is shocked by Chisholm's refusal to force Willie to accept God as he dies. He and Willie aid the wounded revolutionary soldiers in the village, but when they learn that the church has been shelled, they rush back. During Willie's visit, a war between imperial and revolutionary forces begins, but Chisholm refuses to abandon the mission. Maria Veronica is still reluctant to trust Chisholm, and her suspicion of him deepens upon the arrival of the atheistic Willie. When the Wangs return, they trick Maria Veronica into trusting them, despite Chisholm's warnings, and rob the sisters. Chisholm is impressed by her competence, however, and the mission flourishes. Maria Veronica, the daughter of an aristocratic Austrian family, looks down upon the humble, unworldly Chisholm and rebuffs his attempts at friendship. After two years the mission is completed, and nuns Mother Maria Veronica, Sister Martha and Sister Clotilde arrive to start a school. Instead, Chia gives him a land grant and the materials and labor with which to build a fine mission. Chisholm's medical treatment cures the lad, but he gently refuses Chia's offer to convert to Christianity, saying that he cannot accept a soul in exchange for services rendered. Chisholm goes to Chia's lavish home and tends to Chia-Yu, whose infected arm requires surgery. Pao appeals to Chisholm for help with Chia-Yu, the child of the local mandarin, Mr. Joseph aids Chisholm in his labors and they soon receive a box of medical supplies from Willie.
Alone, Chisholm struggles to build his mission, until one day he is joined by Joseph, a young Chinese Catholic. Upon his arrival, Chisholm is greeted by the hypocritical Hosannah and Philomena Wang, who storm off upon Chisholm's warning that he is not interested in the "rice Christians" who attend church only to receive an allotment of rice. His advisor, Reverend Hamish MacNabb, encourages Chisholm to become a missionary, and soon the young priest sets off for the village of Pai-tan in the Chekkow province of China. Accepting his vocation, Chisholm becomes a priest, but fails at his first two positions. Chisholm rushes home but Nora dies before his arrival. Finally Chisholm learns that Nora, heartsick at her imagined abandonment, has given birth to an illegitimate daughter.
Chisholm continues his studies but is mystified by a letter from Polly asking him not to come home during the summer. Despite Chisholm's profession of love, Nora fears that he will become a priest, as Polly wants, and when he returns to college with Angus and bids farewell to his best friend, atheist medical student Willie Tulloch, Nora despairs. Polly and Ned provide the boy with a stable home, and as he grows up, Chisholm falls in love with their daughter Nora. As Lisbeth helps her wounded husband home, they are drowned in a raging river, and Chisholm goes to live with Alex's cousins, Polly and Ned Bannon. The Catholic Alex has difficulties in the Protestant village, however, and one night, he is attacked. When Sleeth retires for the night, he finds Chisholm's diary and begins to read: In 1878, Chisholm is a young boy who is loved by his fisherman father Alex and mother Lisbeth. Sleeth asserts that Chisholm's sermons are too eccentric, but Chisholm, who has been home for only a year after decades of service as a missionary in China, wishes to remain in Tweedside with his ward Andrew. Chisholm asks Sleeth to reconsider his recommendation that he be forced to retire, and reminds Sleeth that he was boyhood friends with Bishop Angus Mealy, who ordered the investigation. In 1938, Monsignor Sleeth is about to conclude a week-long visit to the Tweedside, Scotland parish of elderly priest Francis Chisholm, whom he considers unfit.
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