Lynn Cummings, a professor and women's rights activist, finds herself falling for a Baptist preacher, of all people. She marvels at the celibate Pastor Stewart's boyish zeal as he attemps to build a Christian Academy at the height of the economic recession. Stewart is enchanted by Lynn's beauty and boundless intellect as she rallies behind a bill of legislation. Their other-worldliness colors their romance, but where their different worlds meet, proves to be their crucible.Lynn thought First Baptist church was your ordinary deep south church - pews overrun with women who labor the ministries, sleepy male elders in chancel seats - until she witnesses the unthinkable: a female guest speaker speaks from a lectern; women are not allowed at First Baptist's pulpit. In Stewart's shame, he hastens efforts to change the rule as old as the church itself, dating back to Reconstruction. The governing family of trustees, the Ginyards, retaliate against Stewart and his feminist armpiece, but soon learn that they underestimated Lynn, a woman with the fire and freewheeling wit to shame heads of state on the lobby floor, when she wields her flaming sword of equality against First Baptist's "lesser vessel" culture. The Ginyards sully Stewart's reputation and then rally behind their Ginyard native son who vies for Stewart's pulpit. A federal investigation looms, and a battered woman's life hangs in the balance. All the while, a cosmic puzzle is coming together: fate has arranged a meeting between Lynn and First Baptist Church in its centennial year.The battle-weary couple is forced to weigh their love versus its emotional toll, but, fate, perhaps, has more urgent concerns than love.