When Laura and Malcolm's everyday church joins a much larger American one, it all seems for the best. But their lives are turned upside down when the church community they move into becomes more and more cult-like in its behaviour. And when her toddler's life is risked by the church leaders, Laura knows she has to escape. Already, though, the community has become a prison, and she becomes more and more frantic in the struggle against her husband's and son's disinterest in leaving, her growing attraction to another man, and her confusion about basic Christian gifts of the Spirit. Finally Laura acts, but her breathtaking struggle to escape tears apart the family as this story of betrayal builds to a terrifying climax.