The Desert and the City

Among the dunes and in the full glare of the desert sun, young Zachary finds that the madness, the politics, and the appetites which we all try to escape from, dwell deep within each and every one of us. Late in the 4th century AD, the young Greek man abandons his family's home in Alexandria with its wealth, comfort, and a promising future with a beautiful girl betrothed to him, to venture out into the desert to prove the earnestness of his Christian faith among the fascinating mix of misfits who have chosen to pursue a Christ-centered life. There, among the hermits, he earns crusts of bread, calloused hands, and the derision of the older adepts. Unfortunately, before coming to the conclusion that his romanticized idea of giving away his wealth to pursue the ascetic life was not as simple as he originally thought, he finds himself as part of a fanatical mob bent on smashing a pagan temple and burning Ptolemy's famed library and all of its collected wisdom.