Paul grows up in the fictional Southern California town of West Beach in the 1970 s. It is his grandmother who raises him on a strict diet of Bible stories and home-cooked meals. When his grandmother dies, Paul abandons his plans to go to Seminary and settles in the Mexican village of Zanillo, where he works in the post office and reads the Bible and the biography of Che Guevara. Neither priest nor revolutionary, Paul lives as if he has taken vows of poverty and chastity, declaring his devotion to the local icon, La Virgen de Guadelupe. After eighteen years, Paul returns to California, and despite full time employment, spends the weekends reading from the Bible on the streets of Berkeley. Nora is impregnated by her best friend Evan on the night of their college graduation. Although Evan is gay, he commits wholeheartedly to helping Nora raise their daughter T Bone. After a close relationship with a woman fails to stir her, Nora settles into a happy family life without a partner. Paul and Nora do not know each other, but they have a chance encounter in downtown Santa Cruz that deeply affects Nora. The encounter allows Nora to come to peace with decisions she, Evan, and T Bone make that may or may not coincide with the views of their beloved Catholic church.