This book focuses on Francis Kreer, a middle-aged clergyman who lives with his wife and daughter in a small English village. His life is completely upended by the death of his mother and by his relationship with a stranger whom he sees as an angel come to sooth his battered soul. Kreer no longer believes in God and neglects his parish duties. A. N. Wilson presents this man's spiritual emergency. It is punctuated by heightened emotions, depression, and compelling desires to behave in unusual ways. Wilson's portrait of this vicar's crisis of faith is devastating.