Disillusioned by the indifference of the crumple-faced girl he adores and by the dismal decline of his beloved Everton, 10-year-old Michael McBride is increasingly sceptical about the credentials of the God that his terrifying schoolteachers and Catholic fundamentalist grandmother would have him pray to night and day and even on the toilet. Meanwhile, as the millennium draws to a close, the Creator himself is feeling the effects of age: his remote control is on the blink, he is drinking more than he should and, to the alarm of those around him, he has taken to plagiarising Shakespeare....