What is the full name of the person who wears a priestly collar for security?
The film opens with an English schoolteacher, Gwen Mayfield, packing up her belongings at a mission school in colonial Africa. The local witch doctors have led a rebellion, and they reach the school before she is able to escape—the shaman wearing a body mask. Gwen screams, and the scene dissolves to the opening credits.
The next scene is back home in England, where Gwen meets with the apparently Reverend Alan Bax for a job interview. We discover that Gwen suffered a nervous breakdown from whatever she experienced at the hand of the rebels when the school was attacked. Alan is impressed by Gwen and hires her to be the new head teacher at the small private school he and his sister, well-known journalist Stephanie Bax, run for the local children in the village of Heddaby.
Upon moving into the teacher's cottage, Gwen asks her maid, Valerie Creek, where she might find the rectory. Valerie is confused—she knows there is no rectory—until Gwen explains she would like to thank Mr. Bax. "Oh, you mean the Baxes' house!" she says, and shows her the way after tea.
At the house, Gwen meets Stephanie and mentions she tried to look for the church on the way but couldn't find it. Stephanie explains there isn't any church, and no "Reverend Alan Bax"—but that the pretence is completely harmless. Alan shows Gwen the old church, now a ruin, as he walks her home. He confesses to her that he is not really a priest—"I wanted to enter the Church, but I failed." He notes that he does not try to persuade anyone or officiate, but sometimes wears the priestly collar "for security." Gwen tries to find out more about why the old church was left a ruin but Alan mysteriously turns silent and seems to be unable to move, so she says good night and leaves him to his thoughts.
Alan Bax