Based on both the 1962 novel and film versions of Lilies of the Field, it tells the story of a group of German nuns, headed by a determined, dauntless Mother Superior, who manage to get an African American itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades named Homer Smith to build a chapel for the New Mexico community in which they live, despite not having money to pay him.

Styne composed his score with Ethel Merman in mind, but director Joshua Logan cast Shirley Booth instead.

Sammy Davis Jr.'s salary demands put him out of the running, and the role of Homer went to Al Freeman Jr., whom Logan later described as "difficult" and "antagonistic."

Richard Watts, in the New York Post, mentioned "Miss Booth's warm and gracious appeal.

[citation needed] Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum, published by St. Martin's Press (1991), pages 29–31 (ISBN 0-312-06428-4)