It all started with a Viking raid: When he is captured and forced into slavery, Ailill the Irishman must pretend to be a priest or die. Better to be a high-value priest than a low-value corpse, he thinks, and so it happens that a failed novitiate (he loved women too well) is taken up by Norway's first Christian lord, Erling Skjalgsson to bring the Word to his people.

Ironically, though "Father" Ailill is as phony as a three-dollar psalm, he and he alone must convert a fiercely pagan people to the gentle teachings of Christ -- and they don't want to hear about it. Nor do their "gods", who are all too real, and all too liable to do something horrible to those disturbing their divine peace.

It's going to take a miracle for Ailill to succeed, or even survive, but fortunately God (the one true God, not those pagan demon creatures) is on his side....