Lamar and Jordon are from the same southern town, yet have never met. LamarA[a–a[s life begins in poverty and declines further with the murder of his questionable father and suicide of his no-account mother. Young and alone, Lamar becomes a ward of the county and is sent off to the Southern Baptist Bible Institute to be instructed in a religious vocation. Jordon, fifteen years younger, grows up in an old, eccentric family whose bank accounts are overflowing with money and closets are overflowing with generations of deception. A decade later, Lamar dominates the international stage of religion and politics, while Jordon breaks away from his domineering family to embrace his true self. Believing he has spoken with God, Lamar begins an unholy quest that leads him to an intersection with young Jordon, and a revelation that threatens to tear the small town and his empire apart.