This book is about faith and logic, sin and guilt. It is also about innocence and its punishment. The novel traces Thomas Spanner's life with a dysfunctional father who blames Thomas for his sister's death. Unable to cope with blame and guilt, Thomas becomes drug addicted. He has a religious experience, gives up his drug dependency and eventually becomes a priest. He is assigned to an isolated religious community where he tries to fight a harsh Medieval Catholicism. Thomas falls in love with Greta-church secretary and nominal Catholic. They marry and together they escape from Johnsburgh