In the small town of Mitford, rector Father Tim and his lovely wife Cynthia ponder their retirement plans, trying to raise their young charge, Dooley, and find Dooley's missing, abandoned siblings, while a brash mayoral candidate is calling for development and "progress."

While Father Tim Kavanagh struggles with ambivalence about returning to the pulpit in Mitford, his adopted son, Dooley, falls passionately in love with an aspiring veterinarian against the backdrop of a mayoral reelection campaign and the opening of a new café.