Young Adso denounces the hedonistic ways of his influential father and joins the enlightened friar, William of Baskerville, as his new apprentice. They arrive at an abbey for an important philosophical debate but a strange death occurs.
After another suspicious death, William and Adso look for a way to get into the abbey's mysterious library. Meanwhile, inquisitor Bernardo Gui, who's traveling to the abbey, brings the wrath of god to all he deems sinners along the way.