Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville, a Franciscan friar investigating a series of mysterious deaths at a remote 14th-century Italian monastery, uncovering a conspiracy tied to a forbidden, possibly heretical book hidden deep within the abbey's labyrinthine library. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud, adapting Umberto Eco's dense philosophical novel, streamlines the source material into an atmospheric medieval murder mystery steeped in theological intrigue and Inquisition-era paranoia. Christian Slater co-stars as William's young novice and narrator. The film's meticulous production design and Connery's commanding presence anchor a story ultimately as much about the danger of forbidden knowledge as it is a whodunit.