Jim Gudsen is a regular guy, newly returned from the killing fields of Vietnam -- cynical about life in general and religion in particular. His older brother Herkimer is different -- always has been. Jim is about to find out just how different. A Lutheran minister, Herkimer is defrocked by his Church for his refusal to expel a gay couple from his conservative congregation. In the process of reevaluating his beliefs, Herkimer claims God has spoken directly to him, and told him to 'Gather the Twelve' -- before his wife Megan succumbs to terminal cancer. The brothers are aided in their search by a college professor who is convinced that the key to unraveling the mystery of the Twelve is the ancient Greek myth of the Labors of Hercules. In a process of discovery like no other, the brothers find their lost father, a half-sister immersed in the seedy underworld of porn, a former pro football player turned drug addict, and others who will help them build a church of lost souls...