Big, social-political contemporary parable about morality, New Labour and people struggling to survive in contemporary Britain. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, autumn 1996, and things can only get better - or so believes the Reverend John Gore bound for the North-East after a decade's absence, charged with the mission of 'planting' a new church in the deprived West End of town. But on his return to a Victorian city in the throes of 'regeneration', Gore finds his task complicated by run-ins with three impressive locals: Stevie Coulson, muscular chief of Newcastle's top 'security consultancy'; Martin Pallister, the local Labour MP, who has embraced the Christian Socialism dear to his party's new leader; and Lindy Clark, a tack-sharp single mother, working several jobs to stay afloat. Gore finds himself in need of help from each of them to bring off his mission. But in doing so he learns more than he wished about the secrets people keep so as to live with themselves. Slowly, these relationships draw him into a moral maze, and he decides drastic action is needed .