Reverend Charles Jacobs, a minister in Harlow, Maine, who shares a secret obsession with boy Jamie Morton, a draw so powerful, it has profound consequences five decades after the shattering tragedy that turned the preacher against God, and long after his final, scathing sermon. Jamie grows to become a nomadic rock guitarist hooked on heroin, and meets Charles Jacobs again, and their bond becomes a pact beyond the Devil’s devising.