Jack Holland, an Irish teenager without a morsel of religion and even less talent for celibacy - feeling pressure from his family - flees to the shelter of a seminary. It was supposed to be a temporary measure but, being a procrastinator, he never quite summons the courage to leave. Almost by default, he finds himself in California as a Catholic priest. His life among the Californians is an odyssey of shattered vows and unexpected career success. He is dogged however at every turn by a wrathful God.

Something-some sort of urgency-has taken hold of the four O'Neill girls following the death of their youngest sister. These young, educated women from an upper-middle-class background are making choices that send their lives off in radically unconventional directions. The novel follows the girls' careers and loves from the anything-goes artist's life of Paris in the 1920's to a Bolshevik revolt in a convent; from scandalous liaisons to hostile encounters with British troops. The collision between personalities and values builds towards an inevitable explosion as each becomes more committed to...