In around 1939, Hilary Laurens, a young Episcopal priest, has recently returned to his hometown, somewhere in the American heartland, upon receiving sudden word that his grandfather, the Bishop of that diocese and the only father he's known, has suddenly taken ill and is dying, and Hilary arrives just in time to talk briefly with his grandfather just before the Bishop's death, to tell him that he has just been appointed vicar of St. Matthews, a large church in a "great eastern city", and thus can perpetuate the Bishop's calling.