Christopher is a young Catholic priest sent from his native Bend, Oregon to the big and sin-full city of San Francisco during the height of the AIDS crisis. He quickly finds that the metropolitans are quirky but friendly and makes friends with a number of parishioners -- amongst them a homeless man, a gay couple, and Dolores, a beautiful Latina who makes a living selling tamales on the streets.

Christopher has chosen his profession because he is lazy and has no interest in sex. He thought that a perfect combination for a Catholic priest, and so far his vocation has served him well. In San Francisco, though, unusual things start happening -- things that a Catholic priest might be tempted to call miracles.

Unprepared for the onslaught of the unusual, Christopher is shocked into action when the child of Dolores is kidnapped. There is no trace of little Peter, and no help if forthcoming for what soon looks like a lost cause. But the child's younger brother, Paul, starts drawing on books. It takes a while to understand, but the drawings are mysterious clues that seem to indicate where the varied bunch can find young Peter.

Once the clues are deciphered, they imply imminent danger to Peter's life, and they are religious in nature. Christopher's faith and knowledge of theology are tested, and with them his ability to connect with friends and acquaintances to find the correct solutions and the way to Peter's hiding place.

But what if the clues are not solved correctly? Are Christopher's lazy years in seminary going to be sufficient to solve a puzzle that might cost a young child's life?

While time is running out faster and faster, Christopher exhausts all his resources and finally enlists the help of the angel Hadraniel, an arrogant messenger of God who is not all too fond of mankind.

"What did Jesus really say?" is the question that reverberates through "In the Mission." Stories 2000 years old need to be examined with a new look, since only if Christopher can find out what really happened to Jesus and Judas and Peter and Paul can a young life be saved.