All of William Faulkner's works examine at least in some measure the question of redemption. The quest for salvation, the desire to be redeemed in another world for the actions that we have taken in this one, is arguably an essential part of Southern literature in general, and a Freudian (or anyone generally inclined towards the more heavy-handed versions of psychoanalysis) might argue that the quest for salvation that runs through Southern writing reflects the collective guilt of the region for the legacy of slavery. That historical guilt is touched in Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun, and the ways in which redemption is handed out (and withheld) in the final scene suggests that Faulkner is indeed engaged in an act of collective, racial apology.
The novel - which comprises three prose sections that provide expository background along with three dramatic acts that tell the current story - is a sequel to Faulkner's Sanctuary, which is better known and more often read and generally considered to be the stronger of these two works. Requiem for a Nun takes place eight years after the end of the previous novel, a time period during which Temple Drake (one of the major characters in the earlier novel) has married Gowan Stevens and has given birth to two children. She is - this being a Faulknerian family, after all, being blackmailed by Pete, the brother of the lover that she had in the previous novel. She makes the decision to run away with him (for reasons that do not seem absolutely psychologically compelling), but before she can do so, her black servant, Nancy Manningoe, kills the younger child.
The rest of the work centers on Temple's attempts to win a pardon for Nancy from the governor. Her drive to win this pardon arises in part from her guilt about her own actions and motivations, her own infidelity, her own sexuality. But it also arises in no small part from her desire not to see a black woman blamed for a crime. This is the case e...