Eric Jameson is assigned to pastor the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Vickery, GA, with the mandate to bring the congregation fully into the 21st century. Many of the Aldersgate congregants and people in Alexander County adhere to fundamentalist religious and conservative political values, and object to Eric’s ministry. Eric carries out his assignment by comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable within his parish. The sermons he preaches and his actions lead to revitalization and growth of the congregation but inevitably bring him into conflict with the Southern Restoration Movement. This organization employs violence, especially against blacks, to reestablish Anglo-Saxon political and cultural supremacy. In order to protect himself, his loved ones, and friends from the Restorers, Eric must resort to the combat skills he employed successfully while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and for which he received the Medal of Honor.