The story of a young man's struggle to live with the burden of being a prophet and is representative of the author's fierce, powerful, and original vision of Christianity. Young Francis Marion Tarwater has been reared by his fanatical, tyrannical grand-uncle Mason to be a prophet; when Mason dies, however, Francis rejects his mission and consequently suffers tortures of doubt and indecision. Although for a time he weighs the value of humanistic rationalism (as exemplified by his uncle George Rayber), Tarwater unexpectedly experiences a vision and comes to accept his calling.