It’s 1906 New York City—the heyday of investigative journalism, and McClure’s Magazine has tasked Willa Cather, an idealistic young writer from the prairies of Pittsburg, with profiling the messianic leader of a growing religious fringe group. To get the scoop, Willa must infiltrate the ranks of one of America’s most insidious and little-known cults as the line between faith and science blurs.