In 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest center of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behavior and lifestyle since its founding in 1084.

An Infinity of Little Hours is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. After five years each man must face a choice: if they stay to make "solemn profession" they will never leave. But if they leave, they will be turning their backs on a journey to find God in solitude--their life's ambition. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, describing a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five made it to the top of the mountain.