Transferred to a tiny, aging congregation from her busy church, Ruth Broggan is confronted with time to consider what life is really all about. Letters, phone messages and even sermons, chronicle Ruth's crisis of faith as she sorts through how others have found purpose. She hears from her Buddhist daughter, a priest friend currently on recall to Rome to learn to be less flexible, a famous lesbian poet with an unrequited love for Ruth, and even from the rabbi of the synagogue next door. At last, Ruth decides on a radical approach to finding the meaning of life: she locks herself into the manse, refusing to come out until God talks to her.