Among the Alps on the Austrian-Italian border in Tyrol in 1900, Christopher Freyman rings the church bells of Zenbruck. His wife dies after giving birth to a quiet baby boy. After a year, an Austrian Army doctor discovers that the boy, named Gabriel, has been born deaf and will never learn to speak. Anton Engel, a neighbor, suggests that Chris take Gabriel to a Catholic monastery across the border, which is known for its miracles. Although Chris goes reluctantly, being a Protestant, Father Prior tells him that Gabriel will be healed. However, ten years later, Gabriel is still deaf, although much beloved by his father and elder brother, Karl. Meanwhile, Chris and Karl quarrel bitterly over the lad's determination to be a scientist, as Chris wants Karl to follow him in his church activities. Weary of Chris's verbal abuse and provincialism, Karl abruptly leaves home. Chris decides that Karl is dead to him and burns the unopened letters from his son, who is now in America. Later, Chris notices that Gabriel can hear the high-pitched sound of a spoon hitting a glass. The local doctor says that specialists in New York and Berlin could help Gabriel, but this is too far for Chris to travel. When Chris overhears Anton and his wife Anna read a letter from Karl, in which he explains that he is working as an aeronautical engineer and asks their help in conveying to his father that he loves him and that he goes to church every week, Chris begins to communicate with his son. Sometime later, Chris announces to the townsfolk that he is leaving for New York, thanks to a ticket Karl has sent, to arrange for Gabriel to follow for treatment. Father and son are joyfully reunited, but the next day, Karl is killed on a test flight of a new airplane. Within days, World War I breaks out, and Chris is unable to return to Zenbruck, which he learns has been destroyed by bombs. Gabriel is listed as dead. Shocked, Chris walks aimlessly until he enters a church, where he hears a sermon on Job's faith in God despite tribulations. Years later, Chris works as a menial. He hears a record of a symphony of bells by Mario Singarelli and recognizes a variation on the tune he used to play on the bells at his old church. Despite his advanced age, Chris earns money for a ticket to a Singarelli concert by wearing heavy sandwich boards as advertisements. He tries unsuccessfully to see Singarelli backstage and later at the Savoy, until Singarelli learns that a man from Zenbruck has tried to see him and goes to Chris. Singarelli explains that he was one of the few survivors of the town and that he was adopted by an Italian family. He tells Chris that he never knew his real name because he was born deaf and that the bombing restored his hearing. Realizing that Singarelli, despite his Italian accent, is actually Gabriel, Chris is reunited with his son. At the next concert, Chris plays the bells in the symphony.