Mason Tarwater, an outspoken
evangelist and self-ordained prophet, dies many years after
kidnapping his great-nephew Francis, raising him in a backwoods cabin and preparing him to someday take his place as a prophet. Prior to his death, Mason asked the now-teenaged Francis to give him a proper
Christian burial with a cross marking the grave so that his body would be resurrected on
Judgment Day. Francis starts to dig the grave but suddenly hears a "Voice" in his head telling him to forget about the old man. Francis obeys and gets drunk instead. When Francis wakes from his drunken sleep, he sets the cabin on fire, believing that his great-uncle's body is still inside. He leaves for the city and gets a ride from a salesman, who drops him off at his Uncle Rayber's house. Rayber, a well-educated schoolteacher, is amazed to see young Francis, whom he had long ago given up on after his kidnapping by Mason. Francis is also greeted at the door by Rayber's young son Bishop, who (it is implied) has
Down syndrome and low intelligence. Bishop is Rayber's child with Bernice Bishop, a meddlesome
social worker whom Mason had referred to as "the welfare woman." The old man had previously told Francis that Bernice was much older than Rayber and only able to give him one disabled child, and that God had mercy on the child by making him "dim-witted," which was the only way to protect him from his evil parents. Mason had commissioned Francis to
baptize Bishop at some point, in order to save the little boy's soul. Due to this history, Francis is immediately put on edge when confronted with Bishop, but decides to stay with his uncle anyway. Francis does not think of Bishop as a human being and finds him repulsive. The three begin to live together as a family for a while, and Rayber is excited to have his nephew back in order to raise him as a normal boy and provide him with a proper education. However, Francis resists his uncle's attempts at secular reform very much the same way he resisted Mason's attempts at religious reform. Rayber understands what Francis is going through, as he himself had been kidnapped as a child by Mason, but Rayber's father had managed to rescue him. After many attempts by Rayber to "
civilize" the reluctant Francis, and many attempts by Francis to figure out his true destiny (either as a prophet, which was Mason's wish, or as an enlightened, educated modern man, which is his uncle Rayber's wish), Rayber devises a plan to take Francis back to the farm where he had been raised in the hope that confronting his past will allow him to leave it behind. Under the guise of taking the two boys out to a country lodge to go fishing, Rayber finally confronts Francis, telling him that he must accept an ordinary life and ignore the superstitious Christian upbringing and the false destiny with which his great-uncle has corrupted him. Francis, however, is not so easily convinced. While at the lodge, Francis again hears the "Voice" (the
devil) who tells him to forsake his great-uncle's command to baptize Bishop and to drown the boy instead. One evening, Francis takes Bishop out on a boat to the middle of the lake, with Rayber's reluctant blessing. Rayber cannot see them on the lake but can still hear their voices. Francis ends up drowning Bishop while at the same time baptizing the boy, thereby fulfilling both destinies simultaneously. Rayber realizes what has happened and faints, not out of fear for his son's life, but because he feels nothing at his son's death. Francis runs away into the woods and tries to make his way back to Mason's house to confront his demons once and for all. He eventually hitches a ride with another man, who entices Francis to get drunk. Francis takes the man's offer and passes out, eventually waking up naked against a tree with his clothes neatly folded beside him. He dresses hurriedly and sets fire to the area. Burning his way through the forest, Francis finally makes his way back to Powderhead, his great-uncle's old farm, where he finds the cabin has burned to the ground. Francis had assumed that his great-uncle had been burned up with it, but Buford, a Black man who lived nearby, had actually rescued Mason's body from the house while Francis was drunk at the beginning of the novel, and gave him a
Christian burial as he had requested. Francis realizes that his great-uncle's two main requests (that he be given a proper burial and that Bishop be baptized) have been realized, which convinces him that he can no longer run away from his calling to be a prophet. The story ends with Francis heading toward the city to fulfill his calling to "Go warn the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy." ==Title==