Sister Mary, one of three Sisters Superior in the Church of the Saved is murdered in the opening chapter, the first of several murders.
The same evening, David Stone attends the Summer Sunday Sundown Services held at Jefferson Park in the City of Dicksburgh, presented
by Pastor Maxentius Zeno Constantine (known to all only as “Pastor”) and the police arrest David for blasphemy.
Sister Mary had
a two million-dollar life insurance policy (with double indemnity for accidents) issued by a company in Bermuda. The beneficiary is an
international religious charity controlled by Pastor. Will her death be ruled murder, suicide or accident?
David, a graduate
student, demands the prosecution prove each statutory element beyond a reasonable doubt using the Federal Rules of Evidence.
He takes the position before one may be convicted of a blasphemy, the law must provide a definition of God and then produce evidence
to support the definition or the prosecution will fail to make a prima facie case.
Pastor uses the upcoming trial to increase
his sphere of influence and bring money to the church. His church, like all others, always needs more money. He spends some
of his time at the Garden of Faith, headquarters of a relgious mission, on Lake Brokopondo in Suriname, saving souls, feeding
the poor and performing devotional rites for God with the Sisters Superior and the Angels of Manna, a lower level order residing in
the Garden. While Pastor’s relationship is strictly religious, the sexual rituals rival those described by the Marquis de Sade
— embellished by the kinks of Sister Leah.
Sister Leah, genetically an intersexual and a former professional female
dominatrix, now restricts her domination practice to an underground arm of the Church as the Mistress of Justice.
What happens
to David's life if the jury finds him guilty?
