Gabriel McKenna is an ex-Catholic priest, and with his quiet job at a quiet bookstore, he is-slowly-rebuilding his still-young life. But even outside the confessional, people feel compelled to share their stories and reveal to him their deepest, guiltiest secrets. One of these people is Madeline Murray, an ambitious advertising executive, who, hours after uncharacteristically confessing to Father Gabe, has a vision: A business that will offer confession and forgiveness-the comforts of religion, without the religion. Without knowing exactly how it happened (and whether any of it is morally sound) Gabriel is transformed by Madeline and her colleagues into the centrepiece of the forgiveness brand. A therapeutic revolution unleashes itself on America-or is about to, until a terrible secret threatens to torpedo the business and the man at the middle of it.