Tony Longacre belonged to God. He started the Bethany Baptist Church in the basement of Thomas Hargrove's home. Because of his success, for he was magnetic and dynamic, he was both the most admired and envied young preacher in Ocmulgee, Georgia. Until he fell in love with Marlene who made him both whole and divided and his marriage to Debra Masterson fell apart.
Rusty Cardigan, Tony's old army buddy, had warned him that Debra was "dead between the legs" but Tony had not heeded the warning. When he announced his intent to divorce Debra and marry Marlene, the church fired him, and when he said "I hadn't experienced God's love until I discovered woman's love, found myself loving and being loved by a woman" he was accused of heresy and blasphemy.
But Tony, the ex-reverend, had found the pearl of great price and the price was above everything; he was impaled on the dilemma's horns, the same moment when he became a whole man with this woman he became a divided man with the church.
He found a way though, with this woman's love, and Doctor Amos Doolittle's help he was president of Jesse Sprighton University to create a whole family out of the chaos of his changing world.