Laura, Malcolm and their children Clive, nine, and Mel, nearly two, begin community living in a remote country house under the aegis of an American church group, New Wave of the Spirit Christian Church Worldwide.
While Mel is in hospital, arrangements are finalised for the family to sign their home over to the church and move. When they arrive at their new home, Laura finds that the children are to be housed in a separate building. Mel is still in a huge toe-to-armpit plaster and is due to return to hospital for an operation and another plaster in a few weeks. Under the prompting of Greg, their leader, Mel is declared healed already. Her plaster will be removed at the house. The consequences of this decision harden Laura's already growing unease into a determination to leave. The fact that Bruce (with whom she has formed a romantic attachment) wants to leave too, without his wife, spurs her on.
Laura continues to discover things about the church where the line between choice and coercion becomes blurred. The puzzle over a secret operation her friend Toni had, is revealed when she discovers that the church eschews all forms of birth control. An escape is planned. Can Laura leave her husband and son behind? Things don’t work out quite as she’d planned.