 Film follows the life of the donkey Balthazar as he passes from owner to owner, many of them treating him cruelly, all of them are beyond his pure and simple comprehension. His sad predicament as a beast of burden parallels the life of his first human owner, Marie, who, like Balthazar suffers the sins of man. Balthazar is a noble creature, however, and he accepts his fate with grace. The film is a parable of virtue & purity. It is a narrative of transcendence in a life of burden.