Seven-year-old Jess lives with her dominating mother until she is rudely removed from her peculiar Pentecostal home and sent to school.
Jess, now 16, meets Melanie and falls in love. The pastor, the congregation and Jess's mother begin to suspect, culminating in a devastating denouement in front of a packed congregation. Pastor Finch demands that they renounce their passion for each other and turn their backs on Satan.
Jess, one year older and seemingly rehabilitated, returns to grace, taking Pastor Finch's sermon at the Blackpool Beach Mission. She meets Katy who replaces Melanie in her affections when it becomes obvious that Melanie has put the past behind her. Her one true friend Elsie is ailing and Cissy Fields, the local undertaker, takes her in when Mother and flock disown her, finally deciding that she is lost. But Jess dreams of books and Oxford.