In this period drama series, the young, unexperienced Catholic priest Erik Odekerke -who keeps a diary, and is once described as a (pastoral) 'sheperd dog', hence the Dutch title- gets his first assignment, as kapelaan -literally 'chaplain', but in Dutch still in assistant to the parish's curate- in a mining town in Dutch Limburg. Despite all his efforts, good intentions and advice from a few friends, notably experienced colleague-kapelaan Paulus Lumens and later protestant mine engineer Johannes de Hertog, he has a hard time learning to fit in the social life of the various classes, from farmhands and miners to the baron. His celibacy is even tempted by a girl.