At a Jesuit seminary in California, an aged brother who has been bedridden for years has a holy vision and walks again. While the community celebrates a miracle and pilgrims and souvenir-sellers flock to the seminary, the circumstances arouse a questioning spirit in thoughtful Father Arnoux (Charles Boyer). Made prior to the series of romantic melodramas that defined Douglas Sirk’s reputation, The First Legion is well matched to the director’s sensibility in its combination of sincerity and skeptical distance. The discussion of weighty spiritual matters is leavened by William Demarest as an irreverent monsignor.