The protagonist in this saga of intrigue and supernatural mystery, Jonathan Ramsey, is a human geographer and specialist in the study of sacred places. He is called upon to investigate the sudden disappearance of the healing powers of a famous shrine in New Mexico. What he discovers along the way is the very meaning of Jesus's call “to be like him.” Ramsey, also, learns of his own role in fostering an epochal renewal of Christianity and readers receive a revelation about the power of place in human affairs. When Ramsey arrives at the shrine, he begins by interviewing the strange cast of eccentric characters involved with the shrine, and he learns of Adam Gwillt, the shrine's humble caretaker. For some reason, the interviewees tell Ramsey half-truths about the shrine and its caretaker. Slowly, Ramsey pieces together the suppressed true story of Adam, who had shown up at the shrine at the same time its many spectacular healings began. To his surprise, he is able to empirically link the shrine's almost divine powers directly to Adam. Meanwhile, three rival groups descend on the shrine to find Adam, who has now disappeared. A right-wing Christian organisation wants to destroy him, a progressive group of modern-day Christian Gnostics plans to convince Adam to lead them as a new saviour, and a third group hopes to commercialise Adam's healing powers. Eventually the parties collide in a desperate attempt to capture Adam in a remote wilderness area of New Mexico. As the contest resolves itself, Ramsey suddenly realises he's been a pawn in a larger drama and he begins afresh the search for Adam and the true meaning of Jesus's teachings. What he finds is a startling revelation of his own deepest purpose, which he must bring to the world.