This scathing story about predator priests begins in the spring of 1966. Father Schmidt's riding high, expecting to be promoted to pastor of Saint Jude's, in Washington's Maryland suburbs. Also, his choir is to feature in a Second Vatican Council documentary-and he's driving a sporty new Plymouth Fury III.

Thirteen-year-old Jeff, about to enter a Jesuit prep school, is also riding high. Father S. takes a kindly interest in Jeff-until his interest takes a turn that changes both their lives forever. The Archdiocese deals obliquely with the situation, by indeed promoting Father S.-to the boondocks of Southern Maryland. But there he finds likeminded exiles and, with the help of his new friend Father Robin, learns how to exploit more boys.

Meanwhile, Jeff, who happens to be gay, works to recover, helped by a promising friendship at his new school-until he comes up against more priestly intervention.

Father Schmidt is based on one of the Catholic Church's most notorious pedophile priests, Father Thomas S. Schaefer (1926-2009), the author's priest and confessor when he was a boy in Silver Spring, Maryland.