Canadian detective Benny Coopermann is hired to keep an eye on Norbert Patten, the absolute despot of a highly suspect religious cult, the Ultimate Church. Benny follows him to Big Crummock Lake where Patten goes to escape whilst the U. S. Supreme Court investigates his finances. An unwise choice as a hide-out, for it's a part of his distant past, and now the past begins to catch up with him. And this yields a complex mystery which keeps the wily Benny guessing.