After learning that Vorbis had facilitated the death of the missionary Brother Murduck to cover up his being mocked by Ephebian citizenry and to provide a reason for war against Ephebe, Brutha uses his memory to reluctantly aid an Omnian raid through the Labyrinth guarding the Tyrant's palace.

Because of his authorship of De Chelonian Mobile (The Turtle Moves), which contradicts Omnian dogma about the shape of the Discworld, Didactylos is brought before Vorbis to face reprisal.

Seemingly conceding his previous views about the shape of the world and willing to write a retraction extolling Omnian interpretations, Didactylos escapes after hitting Vorbis with his lantern.

While Brutha, Vorbis, and Om are in the desert, the Tyrant of Ephebe manages to regain control of the city and contacts other nations who have been troubled by Omnia's imperialistic ambitions.

After Urn accidentally activates the hydraulic system which secretly operates the doors of the Great Temple, Brutha interrupts Vorbis's ordainment.

At the same time, Simony leads the Omnian military including Urn's 'Iron Turtle' war engine to the beachhead in order to fight the anti-Omnian alliance.

Om is infuriated but obeys Brutha, and instead travels to Dunmanifestin, where gods gamble on the lives of humans in order to gain or lose belief.

In the aftermath Brutha becomes the Eighth Prophet, ending the Quisition's practice of torture and reforming the church to be more open-minded and humanist, with the citadel becoming home to the largest non-magical library on the Discworld.

Australian author Jack Heath described the book as "one of the 20th century's finest satires", and added that "the gods are pompous, the worshippers cowed, and the priests violently closed-minded.

Yet the tale is never heavy-handed, thanks to Brutha's sincerity and some deftly comical plot twists, as well as all the levity that comes from picturing an angry God trapped in the body of a tortoise.

[4] Pratchett stated that he received fan mail from "(1) pagans who say that it really shafts the Big Beard in the Sky religions, and (2) Christians who say that it is an incredibly pro-Christian book".

In January 2016 the official Terry Pratchett Twitter feed announced an upcoming comic adaptation of Small Gods by cartoonist Ray Friesen.