Set in the United States of the future, Dr. Joshua Christian's work as a clinical psychologist presents him with a bitter tableau of people spiritually impoverished by too much change: political, climatic, idealogical. His deep compassion and personal magnetism have created a devout following among his patients, but living and working in the backwater of a Connecticut town, he yearns to reach out and help on a larger scale. Dr Judith Carriol, a brilliant senior official from the Department of the Environment is as ambitious and career-oriented as she is Machiavellian. She recognises in Joshua the personification of her desire to influence history. Together the embark on a crusade to regenerate the country's morale by radically changing its peoples' outlook. Judith engineers the plot, Joshua must execute it and on a tour of the winter-devastated country, he turns the tour into a pilgrimage that touches and renews the despairing hearts of the people.