As THE COUNCIL OF HEAVEN opens it is night, before the dawning of God's Judgment Day on Earth. Lucifer (representing sinful man), made human by God to give His once favorite Archangel a last chance to repent of his envious ambition to be God, confronts a band of seven artists and poets also restored to early mortality: Dante, Michelangelo, Goethe, Milton, Leonardo, Shakespeare, and Rembrandt. They are to tempt him into reciting and evoking some of their masterworks most persuasive for his conversion. Strengthening them against Lucifer's own temptations is St. Francis of Assisi, God-sent mentor and guide, who may usher them, if earned, into the presence of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.