Father Francis Chisholm is a good priest-somewhat peculiar, perhaps, but a good priest all the same. Forged as a youth in the fires of suffering and tragedy, Francis accepts his vocation and strives to serve his people in humility and good humor, with compassion and courageous heart. After two spiritually eventful but conventionally unsuccessful assignments as a curate, Father Chisholm is sent as a missionary to China. Upon arrival, he finds his mission in ruins: the property deserted, the chapel roofless, the house reduced to rubble. For thirty-five years, Father Chisholm ministers to his people in spirit and body, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and leading souls out of sin and into Christ's own life-enduring throughout the onslaughts of poverty and plague, greed and indifference, famine and war.

Recognized as the best of A. J. Cronin's novels, The Keys of the Kingdom has been lauded since 1941 as a "magnificent story of the great adventure of individual goodness" and a "subtle and spiritual story...told with warmth and vitality." Yet its supreme accomplishment is the credibility with which it portrays the truth that suffering is a promise of Christ and this life but a preparation for the next.