Dan Starkey arrives on Wrathlin Island - meteorogically wet but alcoholically dry - to investigate the residents' belief that the Messiah is alive, female, and about to start school there: it's not a commission that turns up every day. With wife Patricia and her baby Little Stevie, he finds himself caught up in a mess of religious intolerance, blokes with shooters and illicit drinking in a tiny community that is big on religious fervour but small on hospitality. Apart from the Messiah's mum of course, who's clung to her sanity. And her lager.