[3] Sean Connery stars as the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey.

Christian Slater portrays his young apprentice, Adso of Melk, and F. Murray Abraham his Inquisitor rival, Bernardo Gui.

Michael Lonsdale, William Hickey, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Valentina Vargas, and Ron Perlman play supporting roles.

Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his novice, Adso of Melk, arrive at an early 14th century Benedictine abbey in Northern Italy.

William and Adso make the acquaintance of Salvatore, a hunchback who speaks gibberish in various languages, and his handler and protector, Remigio da Varagine.

Meanwhile, Adso encounters a peasant girl who snuck into the abbey to trade sexual favors for food, and has sex with her, thus losing his virginity.

Investigating and keen to head off accusations of demonic possession, the protagonists discover and explore a labyrinthine library in the abbey's forbidden principal tower.

William finds that it is "one of the greatest libraries in all Christendom," containing dozens of works by Classical masters such as Aristotle, thought to have been lost for centuries.

His investigations are curtailed by the arrival of Bernardo Gui of the Inquisition, summoned for the conference and keen to prosecute those he deems responsible for the deaths.

William insists that Adso flee, as he manages to collect an inadequate armload of invaluable books to save; the volume of Poetics, Jorge, and the rest of the library are lost.

The girl has been slated for the same fate but local peasants take advantage of the chaos of the library fire to free her and turn on Gui.

[6] Although U.S. casting agencies proposed only white actors for his medievalist film, Director Annaud insisted on including a black monk to play the translator Venantius.

The Swiss actor Urs Althaus, who had previously been a model for the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Calvin Klein, Valentino, Armani, Gucci, and Kenzo, was hired because Annaud considered that Moors were "intellectuals" in Medieval times and therefore it made sense to have one work as a translator.

[16] In 2011, Eco was quoted as giving a mixed review for the adaptation of his novel: "A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese, lettuce.