The title of the novel alludes to the fact that the author "made sport of the notion of television coverage of the Crucifixion, as the kind of thing that would happen only in contemporary America".

[8] In the year 96 of the Common Era, the bishop of Ephesus, Timothy, is visited in a dream by his ancient teacher Saint Paul, who foretells him that he has been chosen by the men of the future to write the story of Jesus after the other gospels of the New Testament have been deleted from existence by a mysterious hacker.

Arriving in Philippi, they contact a couple of local proselytes, Priscilla and her husband Aquila, convincing them to go with them to the city of Ephesus, one of the largest in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

However, all take for literal Jesus' words about his forthcoming return to earth and the universal judgment; James and his followers, however, believe that Christ is the Messiah announced by the holy scriptures, not the son of God.

The Orthodox Jews provoke a fight, Paul is involved; accused of inciting sedition against Rome, he appeals invoking his citizenship and asks to be judged in the city rather than by the governor of Palestine, Felix.

Meanwhile, visits from the future are multiplying, and things get complicated when a video shot in the garden of Gethsemane is publicized: you see Jesus addressing Timothy on the arrival of the soldiers who came to arrest him against Judas Iscariot's accusations of being the alleged prophet.

Everyone conspires to ensure that Jesus is rightly put on the cross, when he returns in time to witness his own (false) execution; he is then denounced by Timothy to Pontius Pilate, and the story ends in the "right way" with Christianity saved – although in fact, the religion has been changed, as at the moment of Jesus's televised death above his cross appears the image of a blazing sun, in the centre of which is seated the Japanese goddess Amaterasu.

She notes that the Vidal "deconstruct[s] the Christian doctrine of the necessity of the crucifixion of the historical Jesus for the salvation of humankind" and summarizes the novel as a "light-hearted spoof".

[11] Don Fletcher and Kate Feros described the novel as "a clever and complex attack on Christian morality" but criticize Vidal for a confusing message about homosexuality.